A Step Into the Twilight
by seldomknown3
Summary: A girl and her best friend meet up with a shady character carrying a large key, after being attacked by a small dark creature. Whisked away, they learn the reason of their very existence. Please read and review. :3 SxK, RxOC, OCxOC,RxN
1. I'll Meet You On the Other Side

CHAPTER I

I'll Meet You On the Other Side

[NOTE

First of all, I do not own any Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy characters that have or will appear in this fanfiction; this is purely fan-made. Second of all, I hope you all enjoy this. :3 I made another one before this, but I quickly got bored of it so I decided to start a new one. It's probably going to be a lot different from the first. It's just the first chapter, though, so don't expect much. Enjoy it. :D

[/NOTE

Charity reached her aching arm outwards, and bent it back underneath her head to keep her vision level. How long had she been sleeping? All during detention? Had school been let out already? As her swimming vision finally allowed her to make out simple shapes, she realized that the rest of the students were still sitting around her, either drooling, texting, or something inbetween.

Charity was only in detention because she decided to skip on Senior Ditch Day. And she was a sophomore. _'Smart choice..._' Charity mumbled sarcastically to herself. She quickly lost track of time, and the detention bell rang. Springing up from her seat, her short, brown hair flowed behind her as she zipped out of the door, only to crash right into her friend, Nessa.

"Watch it!" Nessa said, both angry and laughing. Charity of course, was the first one up and offered a hand to lift up Nessa. Pulling her back up, they immediately began their walk home.

"You waited here for me?" asked Charity, "I know, stupid question."

Nessa laughed, "No, no, no. You see, my English class was right next to the detention office, and since detention took place during your eighth hour class, you know..."

Charity laughed and jumped on her back, "Carry me!" she said.

What a stupid request this was, as Charity was at least an inch taller and a couple pounds heavier than Nessa. She managed to carry her, however, and they stumbled out of the large high school building.

Charity's eye caught sight of a boy also walking out of the building. He had medium-length red hair with some green mixed in, and was just about Charity's height, if not a little taller. This boy wore simple clothing, but seemed oddly mysterious.

Nessa's mouth turned lopsided, "I don't get what you find so fascinating about him, aside from the fact that his hair looks like Christmas came early."

Charity cocked her head to the side. "It's not that I like him. It's just that he seems sort of... different." she mumbled.

"Yup, he's different." Nessa said, patting Charity on the back, "Just like everyone else. So which exit do you take to get to your house?" she asked. Nessa was walking home with her to hang out in light of the last day of school.

"Up in front by the west building," she said nonchalantly as her eyes steered back to the boy. What was with him that got Charity so interested? As she stepped forward, she practically flew into the area ahead of her, landing on her face.

"What the—?" Nessa asked, as she looked back to see what Charity had tripped on. Her hands began to tremble, and she practically screamed at the sight of it.

"What?" asked Charity, springing herself up again, "You know, falling twice in the same fifteen minutes isn't so good for your—" She stopped half way through her sentence just to stare down at a strange, black, bug-like creature. Its glowing yellow eyes seemed to shoot through her, and its being was so deep of a black that it was as if it was a piece of outer space itself.

"What is this thing?!" asked Nessa, backing away from the strange thing that was slowly moving towards them.

"New breed of dog?" Charity suggested halfheartedly as the thing neared closer. It suddenly seemed to duck into the ground, and moved like a shadow faster towards them.

Nessa let out a high-pitched scream, the kind that Charity could never achieve.

"Look out!" came a hoarse voice from behind them. Charity and Nessa split apart, the sun beating hard against them from how much the blacktop of the parking lot attracted. A figure ran up with some odd object in his hands, and in just a few perfectly played out swipes, the object disappeared. A small, heart-like shape seemed to float up from its body.

"What is that thing?!" Nessa repeated, this time to the boy that had jumped and gotten rid of it. Surely enough, it was the same boy with the red and green hair that Charity couldn't stop looking at for a while.

The boy said nothing, but looked back at the two of them. His eyes fell to Charity, which sent an odd shiver down her spine. "I wasn't supposed to need this anymore. I thought it was over." he mumbled to himself. Dropping the odd object, they both realized it looked just like a large key.

Much to Charity's surprise, when she reached out to pick up the giant key for him, it flashed into her hand.

Letting out a noticeably different scream than Nessa, she threw the giant key back, and shoved her hands into her jeans pockets.

The boy's face, for once, showed the slightest hint of confusion. "You're one, too." he said quietly, getting closer to them. Nessa backed up a step, but Charity stayed still, as if demanding an explanation for what was going on.

"I'm a what?" she said finally, after almost a minute of being stared at like a lab rat.

"You're a keyblade wielder." the boy said, as if he was trying to convince himself rather than Charity. He grabbed her arm forcefully, and began to drag her.

"Hold up!" shouted Nessa.

"This has nothing to do with you," the boy said, guiding her through forests of cars and confused faces. He looked as though he could feel the darkness of those things surrounding them everywhere, "You better go home before you become mixed up in this."

"No way!" Nessa screamed at him, "Charity's my best friend, no matter what, I'm going with her! What the hell is she, and what are those things."

"She has the power to wield a Keyblade," he said, glaring back at Nessa, who finally caught up with them.

"You know, I can follow you just fine without gaining bruises on my arms if you just let me go." Charity informed him.

They reached an odd-looking tree, almost as if it was hollow. There was a small etching of a keyhole on it. Oddly enough, the boy held out his hand, and the Keyblade appeared in it. Pointing it at the tree trunk, it opened as if the door was there the whole time. Silently ordering the two to get in, they walked inside.

As if by magic, the inside of the tree trunk was large enough to fit two basic-size living rooms. The furniture seemed almost as woody as the tree itself, but Charity and Nessa realized it was oddly comfortable as they were told to sit down.

"Leon told me to come here in case something like this happened. He said it would be safe." the boy mumbled.

"What the hell?" asked Nessa, whose temper was finally catching up with her. "Okay, first off, what's your name, what are these Heartless, and why in all of hell does Charity need a giant key?!" Her long, dishwater blond hair had dried slightly at the edges from the sweat that came from her head as they were running, but besides that she was in perfect condition.

"My name is Leander." he said, smoothing his hair down slightly, "I work with the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee."

"Okay," said Nessa, "And what about the Heartless?" she asked.

Leander, for the first time that he had talked to them, smiled, "Beings without hearts. Only a keyblade can destroy them."

"Great, now we're getting somewhere."

Charity was happy that Nessa was taking charge; this was all too shocking for her. She wasn't used to things materializing in her hand when she went to pick them up. She was hardly used to strange guys whisking her away.

"There's a problem," started Leander.

"You can say that again..." murmured Charity, but neither could hear her.

"Two years ago, a boy named Sora had worked to fight off the darkness and seal unlocked worlds with his keyblade."

"There are multiple worlds?" asked Charity?

Leander nodded, "And in doing so, the Heartless had stopped appearing in any world, along with the Nobodies, which are a whole different story. But they're back again, and the Keyblade wielders are once again needed."

"Bullshit." expressed Nessa. This earned her an odd smile from Leander.

"After you saw the Heartless and keyblade, I'll let you decide for yourself. What we need now is to find what the source of the problem is; who is unlocking the worlds."

Charity stared at the two, her vision swimming once more. Before she could even think about what was happening, she collapsed on the couch, her vision black and her breathing sharp and quick.

"Ness-" Nessa was interrupted.

"Let her sleep," Leander said, "she needs this."

_She looked around in terror. Everything was black and white, and everyone was still. She was out on the parking lot with her best friend. Periodically, flashes of two teenagers- both blond, one a girl and the other a boy, would flash into her visions. They seemed oddly familiar, as if like an old friend. The Heartless appeared in front of them. This time, there wasn't just one. One soon multiplied into millions, but her best friend seemed okay. It was her herself that was being overrun by the darkness. She had no keyblade to defend herself, and strangely enough, she didn't mind._

_FLASH._

_Blonde girl._

_The only thing that stood out from her black and white surroundings were her, now glowing red, eyes. She seemed overpowered with darkness, and determined to discover more about this power. She was keeping something from her friend._

_FLASH._

_Blond boy._

_There was a small tunnel of light between the heartless, as if they were avoiding it. It was coming from a door._

_FLASH._

_Blonde girl._

_Was the door closing?_

_FLASH._

_Blond boy._

_FLASH._

_Brunet boy._

_She couldn't sit there arguing with herself on where to go._

_FLASH._

_Silver-haired boy. Blond boy, redhead girl, blonde girl, brunet boy._

_The closer you get to the light_

_The greater the shadow behind you will grow._

_Don't be afraid._

She woke up, gasping for breath. She looked to the right of her. Leander was sleeping peacefully. To the left, so was her best friend.

Nessa sighed, and fell back asleep.


	2. He Turns Chords Into Churchbells

CHAPTER II

He Turns Chords Into Church Bells

[NOTE

Thanks for getting this far! I realize the first chapter was a bit short, even though my fanfiction chapters usually don't get much larger than that. The rest from here on in are going to be about twice that size, so they'll be a bit laggy. Enjoy. :D

Charity woke up, and stretched her arms out in front of her. Her breathing had long since regulated itself, and the sweat had dried on her body, leaving her with an odd chill. Her eyes shone golden under the sunlight that came from a carved-in window that wasn't visible outside of the tree.

A tree?

The girl threw herself up and out of the couch; nothing looked familiar. Where was she? She blinked her eyes, and tried her hardest to remember the night before. _'That's right,'_ she thought, _'I was dragged here... and something about Heartless.'_ Her vision was making familiar shapes swim again, so she rubbed her eyes.

"No... no..." she heard Nessa mumble in her sleep. Charity glanced over at her friend, worried. She looked as if she had just gone through a fit. Leander, however, was on his back on a slightly smaller couch forming a 90 degree angle with the other one, his eyes closed lightly as if he was floating on a cloud.

"He's kinda cute when he sleeps. Like a baby." Nessa's voice chimed in, interrupting Charity's innermost thoughts.

"Hey, are you okay?" asked Charity, quickly dropping that conversation. "You look like you were just running away from the ripper."

Should she tell her about the dream she had last night, or the five that kept flashing into the dream? Not to mention that she herself was being engulfed by heartless. There was a door, however. What was it? Why wouldn't she go near it? "Bad dream." she decided to leave it at that.

Nessa patted her shoulder sympathetically. It felt oddly cold to her, as if Charity's hand was unwelcome by her body.

There was suddenly a hard knock on the door, causing Leander to spring to his feet. After coming to, he quietly cursed himself for falling asleep in the same clothes that he had worn the day before, and walked up to the door to unlock it.

"Wait, don't you need to see who it is first?" asked Charity.

"Think about it. Who would knock on a tree?" Leander pointed his hand outwards, in which the keyblade had appeared in, and the door to the tree swung open.

Standing in front of them was a tall boy, with past-shoulder-length silver hair and a pair of light green eyes. His face was angular, but still young, harsh, but still safe. His clothes seemed to be too small for him, but they seemed to match his being perfectly.

Without saying a word, his eyes narrowed and glared at Nessa. "What are you doing with a Nobody in here?!" he asked angrily. His voice seemed to fit the boy, but it also seemed hoarse as if he had gone long nights without sleeping.

"A Nobody? Her?" asked Leander. He seemed upset with himself as if such a fact was obvious, and looked over at Nessa.

"Wait, what?! Me?" asked Nessa, "What's a Nobody?"

Riku scowled, "There's no time for that now. Heartless are flocking everywhere in this world and many others. Somebody's unsealed the worlds. Somebody from Organization XIII."

"Dammit!" shouted Leander, "I was hoping it was just my imagination. Riku, get your keyblade."

The two girls assumed that his name was Riku, as a long, key-like object had appeared in his hands as well. "Charity, you have to call yours, too."

Charity was still shocked. Not once had she told this boy her name, but he had known both of their names from the beginning. Why did they not know his when they first met? "How do I call a keyblade?" she asked calmly. She knew that if Nessa was in her position, she would have gone on a rant and probably kicked one of them where it hurt.

"Hold out your hand and... you just call it!" Leander said, as if it was riding a bicycle.

Charity scoffed quietly, but held out her hand, "Um. Here, boy?" she asked. Nothing.

"No, you have to do it with feel," Riku explained calmly, "You have to want, no, to _need_ that keyblade to be in your hands."

Charity breathed in heavily. Riku's words seemed to calm her almost to her very core. She stretched her open, right hand out a little farther, closed her eyes, and concentrated heavily. Her hand became heavier in an instant, and she looked down at what she was holding it. Dropping it, scared, the keyblade quickly reappeared in her hands.

"It's always hardest the first time." Riku reassured her. He had remembered all too well when he had practically wrenched Sora's keyblade from his hands. Being his first time, it was one of the hardest things he had ever attempted."

The keyblade looked different from Leander's red and orange one, or Riku's black, red, and white one. It was an odd mixture of a light blue and grey, swirling up a short-reach arm and ending in the key portion, which resembled a cartoon representation of wind. Up and down the arm were also small angel-like wings, increasingly growing more blue the higher up the arm they went.

"The Savior of Balance," both Riku and Leander whispered, both seeming to be in undeniable disbelief.

"The Savior of Balance?" Charity mimicked, but with confusion in her voice.

"No time. We have to get to Hollow Bastion. Fast." Riku said. They all sprinted out of the tree, Charity and Nessa just the slightest bit behind the two.

"I don't understand," Leander said, annoyed, "I thought that the Organization was killed off a year ago!"

"All but one." Riku reminded him. Leander's eyes widened.

"Roxas? But how? He's with Sora!"

"Roxas made his way out and he's created a new Organization. It was originally meant to keep the Nobody population down in separate worlds, but they rallied against him once the group had enough members."

"So what are they here for?" asked Leander. Their pace quickened as they found a large ship that seemed to belong in space straight ahead of them. A trail of Heartless was following them. Charity was too scared to know what to do, and they were all in too much of an obvious rush to be able to deal with them. It first dawned upon Charity and Nessa that these Heartless all seemed to look different; so they must come in different varieties than the one that they had met the day before in the school's parking lot.

"More like 'who'. They want Nessa to be the thirteenth member." Riku said. They all ran into the ship and slammed the door behind them. Gasping for breath, both Riku and Leander looked at Nessa in disbelief.

"No way," said Charity, "I have no idea what this Organization Fifteen or whatever is, but they're not taking Nessa."

"Why do you think we're escaping?" asked Leander to Charity, "The less members that Organization XIII has, the weaker they are. As long as Nessa stays on our side, we might stand a chance at defeating the new Organization and restoring the worlds."

"You got 'em in here okay?" came a voice from the front compartment of the ship. Now that Charity got to look around, it did seem oddly like something that belonged in a Star Trek movie. A door swung open, and a boy around Leander's height stepped out. His hair was spiked in the most random directions, and was a medium light brown. His eyes shone an electric blue, and he was wearing an odd seafoam green and purple outfit. **[Author's Note: Please don't ask why, it's an inside joke.**

"Sora. Yeah, yeah, they're both here." said Riku.

"The keyblade wielder and the Nobody." Leander said, with a satisfactory grin on his face.

"Why are you so proud? You didn't even know that the blonde one was a Nobody." Riku mentioned.

Charity sort of laughed at this, "Actually, he was going to tell her to go home."

"Right now, let's just worry about getting to Hollow Bastion." said Sora.

"Where's Kairi?" asked Riku suddenly, and Sora looked over at him, "She's with the restoration committee. I think she wants to help out since she can carry a keyblade and they pretty much need to start over from scratch."

"Right." Leander whispered. "My uncle can't be too happy about that."

"Your uncle?" asked Nessa, as if it was totally random.

"His name's Squall Leonhart. I'm really not related to him, but I call him my uncle because I've known him for so long. He's in the restoration committee."

The ship seemed to lift, and before they knew it, they were bursting out of the earth's atmosphere.

A huge grin appeared on Charity's face; she couldn't hold it in any longer. "OH MY GOD WE'RE IN SPACE!" She shouted, bouncing up and down in the seat she had taken.

"Sort of." Riku smiled at her. He put his hand on her shoulder so she would stop bouncing, "You're gonna hurt yourself if you do that."

Much to her surprise, blood slowly rushed to Charity's face, creating the pinkest of colors in her cheeks. Turning away so he wouldn't see, she asked a question she's been wondering, "So what's a Nobody?"

"Mm." Riku mumbled, and sat down in between Charity and Leander, "That's tough to describe. A Nobody is not quite a heartless, but would have become one if their willpower wasn't so strong. They can think instead of just reacting on instinct, and they come in different forms as well. Nessa is a Nobody in human form, but she's a special kind."

"Special kind?" asked Nessa quietly, who was sitting on the other side of Leander.

"You were born on account of two Nobody's love for each other; Naminé and Roxas."

"What?" asked Nessa, "My mom gave birth to me, thanks."

Actually, you were created out of nothing. You were given a home here where it was safe, closest to this world's only keyblade wielder. The memories of your parents raising you and your mother giving birth to you were all implanted by Naminé."

"Liar!" Nessa exploded, sitting up, glaring at Riku, "I know for a fact that I was born where I was and I grew up with my family!"

Riku sighed, and looked down, "Think whatever you want about false memories. Because no matter what, they're yours." Riku's Way to Dawn was still in his hands and hadn't disappeared yet. Just staring down at it reminded him of helping Sora defeat Xemnas. Sora... he had false memories implanted as well, didn't he? Of Naminé, that is.

"We're almost there," Sora called from the front. Two voices that both seemed to be very high-pitched and fast were arguing, seemingly over steering of the ship, "Whoa, Chip, Dale, just give me the control!" he shouted at them.

Leander looked down. He did a generally good job at keeping silent when he needed to, and looking down at Merlin's 'new' house was just the time he needed to keep quiet. For some reason, he never wanted to associate with the rest of the restoration committee, and just stayed to do his job. After all, Hollow Bastion was his home and he felt a commitment to it.

The landing was shaky, and Charity could hear Sora curse just loud enough to make the two high-pitched voices squeak.

They all stumbled outside of the ship. The air in Hollow Bastion seemed so familiar, as if from an old cartoon movie that Charity used to watch. Looking over at the ship, she grimaced. The bottom of it seemed severely damaged, and it had landed on its side, messing up one of the wings that could have been for show.

Sora cursed silently again, "Leander, could you go get Cid?" asked the boy. It was just at this time that Charity realized he had some flower on his face. She raised an eyebrow slightly at this, but was easily distracted by Leander punching Riku in the shoulder.

"You heard him, go get Cid." he said to Riku. Riku scoffed, but turned around as he heard Charity's generally silent voice speak up.

"I'll go with you." she said, and they both began to walk away.

Although the house seemed close while they were landing, it was at least a block away. It felt both awkward and nice to be walking next to Riku, at least until Riku finally spoke up.

"It's probably best that you come with me, anyway, because you need to be introduced to the restoration committee before they see that we picked up Organization XIII's new Nobody target." he laughed a bit. Charity smiled.

"What's the restoration committee?" she asked.

Riku smiled, a conversation was starting. "It's a group of people who, a year ago, were trying to restore Hollow Bastion to its former state, before it became overrun with Heartless because of the... issue. Now that the worlds are unsealed, they've gotta start again."

"Very good job!" came a voice. Almost flanking a full 360, Riku found himself staring at a hooded figure that had just materialized behind them. Finally getting the picture, Charity turned around also, and stared in awe. She found her right hand get heavy again, and surely enough the Savior of Balance had appeared once more.

"Take off your hood," Riku told, no, demanded the being, "Who are you, and what position are you in the new Organization?" After Roxas, he wasn't about to take any more crap from Organization members, even new ones that had been recruited for a good reason. The fact that they had rebelled against their leader made it even worse. **[Author's Note: Live the Revolution! xD**

The voice obviously belonged to a girl, and the body structure even under the long coat had given that away from the start. "Are you serious?" she laughed lightly, "I'm just here to get a glance at your new Savior."

The girl neared Charity, who was now gripping her keyblade tightly, and began to circle her like a vulture, "The keyblade couldn't have chosen any worse now, could it? Wait..." she stopped, and laughed lightly, "never mind. Sora."

"Shut up!" Riku demanded, getting into a battle ready stance and holding his keyblade over his shoulder, "Who are you and what is the new organization trying to accomplish by unlocking all of these worlds?!"

The girl laughed again, "Isn't that easy? We're trying to accomplish what our priors could not. We want, no, need to discover the secrets of the heart, so we can become Somebodies." Her circling had shifted now to around Riku, "We can accomplish this by unlocking the worlds one by one, preying Heartless in each one, and collecting those hearts that would be worthy of Nobodies and how they differ from those worthy of becoming Heartless. Whatever is in the heart of the being that became a Nobody, we can multiply to greater strengths in ours to become Somebodies!"

"You're wrong!" Riku shouted, taking a quick jab with his keyblade to the left of him, just barely missing the girl, "A Nobody can't become a Somebody! You're lacking one crucial internal organ, if you know what I mean." he said, tauntingly putting his hand to his upper chest.

The girl growled under her hood, "See what good your heart does you when it's gone!" she shouted, and ran up to Riku from where she had dodged his keyblade stab.

"Leave him alone!" Charity commanded, rushing up to her with her keyblade. Just hardly swiping her on the arm, she backed up a few steps.

"Stay out of this!" the girl scolded her, and held out her hand. What appeared in it was enough to make Riku's jaw drop, and back up a step. A Keyblade.

"Is she supposed to have one of those?" asked Charity blankly, still trying to get over the shock. The girl ran up to her, but was countered by a large swipe from Riku. At this, the girl disappeared into what seemed like nothing.

Riku panted, "Not normal. She's the Nobody of a keyblade wielder."

"So does that mean... you defeated her?" Charity asked.

"Not even close. Sadly." Riku mumbled. "Come on, let's go to Merlin's house. We can tell them about it there. Somehow I think that's more important than the Gummy Ship right now."

The Gummy Ship— that must have been what that odd ship they were riding in was called.

The two of them finally approached a house, and without even knocking Riku opened the door and went in, followed shortly after by Charity.

The house was quaint, but obviously larger on the inside than it had looked on the outside. One face turned towards them immediately. It was a woman with a smiling, child-like face and dawned in a ninja's outfit. She had short black hair that hardly moved as she ran up to them. "Is this the first keyblade wielder you had to find? Wait, wasn't Leander supposed to find her? Where is he?"

Charity seemed a bit worried, "He's back at the, um, gummy bear ship. My name's Charity." she said, holding out a hand. The woman shaked it enthusiastically.

"Yuffie!" she exclaimed, and looked over at Riku, "I take it you need Cid, huh?"

Riku smiled slightly, "Yeah. The ship's broken back there."

"CID!" shouted Yuffie down the house, "GO FIND THE GUMMY SHIP. IT'S BROKEN."

"AGAIN?!" came a man's voice with an obvious redneck accent. A blond man in simple clothing walked out, and stomped out the door to go find the ship.

"That means they're back, huh?" a woman's voice asked somebody, and the responding voice seemed to be nearer than the questioner.

"Must." Suddenly, two figures appeared out of a hallway. There was one tall, brunette woman with a long braid tied behind her in a cute pink ribbon, and a very simple yet gorgeous outfit. Her face was calm and welcoming, and she wore a small smile.

The other, however, looked not quite welcoming, but moreso courageous. There was a scar running from his forehead to the bridge of his nose, his face was angular and serious, and he wore very odd clothing that seemed almost too hot for the weather they were in.

"Aerith, Squall, come meet the new keyblade wielder!" Yuffie told them, waving them over as if Charity was some sort of display in the museum.

"Where's Leander?" asked the scarred man, a bit annoyed, but still, they both approached.

"He's back at the Gummy Ship," Riku explained, "it crash landed and we came here to get Cid to go fix it. The rest of them wanted to stay with the ship."

"I'm Aerith," said the woman who had a calm voice to fit a calm face, "and this is Leon."

"Squall." Yuffie said, scoffing.

"Leon." he urged.

"Sorry you can't meet Tifa, she's taking care of some business in the outskirts right now." Yuffie said apologetically.

"That's nothing to worry about right now," said Riku, "I have a lot of news to tell you."

So Riku told them that Leander had not just picked up the new keyblade wielder while he finished up his second year of high school in that world, but also the new Nobody for the Organization. He also told them in small detail of one of the new members that they had met along the way.

"She had a keyblade?" Leon asked seriously. Riku nodded.

"That's not good. It means that she has to be the Nobody of a keyblade wielder, and one of those special ones like Roxas and Naminé." Yuffie mumbled.

"I keep hearing those names get tossed around everywhere," said Charity, finally speaking up, "Who are they?"

Riku sighed slightly, "It's a long story. Shortened, Naminé had once replaced Sora's memories with ones of her own because she was lonely, but they were replaced again later. She then was able to meet up with her Somebody, Sora's and my best friend, Kairi, and returned to her body. Roxas was a little different; he was in the Organization to start off with, but find himself unsatisfied and began to search for his Somebody. In doing so, he found himself with a new life which he was soon pulled away from, but was able to return to his Somebody in peace shortly after."

"Wow," said Charity, "That is complicated."

"There's a lot more," said Yuffie, "but you don't need to know it all to understand that right now, our worlds are under chaos."

"And only you, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Leander, and the other keyblade wielder can help us." Aerith said.

"The other one?" asked Charity.

"There's one more, one that resides in Hollow Bastion, that we have yet to find. We decided to find you in your world, the Azure Daybreak, and eliminate the hardest one fastest. Which was probably a stupid choice, because for all we know the new wielder could be dead by now." Yuffie said, shaking her head and looking at Leon with an angry stare. It was probably his plan.

Charity smiled, "I'll do all I can to help you guys. It's a promise." she assured them.

They all three smiled happily, and even Riku smiled down at her, "I never doubted you would."

"It's alright," came a voice of a twang heard once before, and the older man stepped in with everyone else following him, "Give 'er a night to cool down, and she'll be rearin' to go by tomorrow."

Riku turned around and shifted his face from a light smile to a serious look, "We met someone along the way."


	3. Unwanted

Chapter III

Unwanted

[NOTE

Alright, something you should know about this chapter is that things are going to finally start heating up between Riku and Charity. XD I couldn't resist this couple, I admit. It started totally unintentional and I just couldn't resist it afterwards. Pay close attention, because a huge turn of events starts in this chapter. Thanks for reading!

[/NOTE

The night was dead silent, not a cricket chirping or a hint of wind blowing. They had all fallen asleep in the large room up front; the day had been so long it seemed as if even the Heartless were sleeping for the night. It seemed as thought nobody would stir for hours. But somebody did. Nessa, as if unintentionally, had been woken up by a soft tap on the shoulder.

Looking upwards, she saw a cloaked figure. She seemed to immediately recognize it as the character that Riku had described to them earlier. Oddly enough, she didn't seem malevolent towards Nessa, and so she felt no mutual feeling.

Reaching out a hand covered in a black glove, Nessa took it and was lifted up from the ground. "Come to Castle Oblivion." the hooded girl told her softly. Without any questions or quarrel, a portal swirling with darkness had appeared before them, and both Nessa and the girl stepped through, leaving the room one member emptier.

xxxxx

Riku's eyes opened slowly on their own, and he pulled his fists up to rub them. There was a little noise; was he the only one that heard? Looking around, everything seemed totally normal. He got a bad feeling in his gut, however, and slowly walked over to Charity.

The girl was sleeping like a baby on the floor of the room. She seemed like she could be strong enough to kill a thousand heartless after the bravery she had shown towards the organization member, but she seemed so pure and innocent when she was sleeping.

"They lied when they said that the good die young." Riku whispered softly to himself. Before he could think of what he was doing, he kneeled down beside her and pressed his lips ever so softly to her left eyelid, and stood up again. He stared down at her in his own disbelief, and then looked at his hands. He had gone through too much, seen too much, and knew too much to feel this way towards such an untainted girl.

The darkness could do things to you.

He walked back over to the comfortable patch of ground that he was laying on, and looked over; it seemed as though Kairi and Sora had taken up the couch. He chuckled softly to himself, and fell back asleep without saying another word.

xxxxx

"Nessa's gone," came Charity's voice sharply, awakening Yuffie, Aerith, Leon, and Cid, who all seemed to come out of separate rooms from down the hall, and Kairi, Sora, Riku, and Leander from the floor.

"Whu—? You're kidding," Leander said, stumbling up. His vision was blurred and he had a headache from getting up too fast, but they all looked over to where she had been sleeping. "Where did she go to?!" he asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" asked Sora, "where would the Organization take her to lose all of her memories and start over again as a new member?"

Kairi, Riku, and Leander all looked at each other, "Castle Oblivion."

"We have to go get her, then." said Charity.

"It's too risky. We still have to find the sixth keyblade wielder we need just to seal all of the worlds and destroy the Organization, and losing memory right now would be too risky."

"Losing memory?" asked Charity.

"The higher you go up in Castle Oblivion, the more memory you lose. The only beings truly safe in there are Nobodies, because they generally have no memories of their own. Nessa was special because she was a Nobody from a very young age, and created memories throughout her lifetime. Now she's being sent to lose them and join the Organization." Sora said, shaking his head as if to say 'it's such a pity.'

"Well, how can we help her?" the girl asked, upset now to the point that she was smoothing back her brown hair frantically. This was a nervous habit of hers, one that she had been trying to break since she was twelve because it looked so utterly ridiculous. At this point, she couldn't care less, she just wanted her friend back.

"We have to go from world to world, sealing them. She's bound to go on a mission somewhere in those worlds or be ordered to stop us. Maybe you can remind her of her true memories and convince her to come back with us, but..." Sora left it at that, and looked at Kairi.

Kairi put her hands together, as if she was trying to make this as clear as possible. "It's probably best if you don't ask her to come back. She's a Nobody; she won't truly be happy unless she has a heart of her own; and that, Naminé and Roxas just couldn't give her. She still carries the heart of the Somebody that she could have been, and all it does is give her emotion. A heart needs to give more than that, and as people, we need more than that from a heart."

Charity looked at the ground. Her vision was fogging before her, and she couldn't get herself to look up at them out of shame. "I understand." she kept her voice low, as if to try to hide every hint that she might have been crying.

"Hey," Riku said, walking up to her. He put two, surprisingly warm, fingers beneath her chin and lifted her head up. Her eyes sparkled when she cried, and her cheeks became very red, "Whatever's best for her is what will happen, right? Let's do this for Nessa." he said smiling.

Sora's grin, however, was wider than any of theirs. He put his hand in the middle of all of them. "For Nessa."

"For Nessa," the rest of them repeated one by one, piling their hands on top of one another's.

xxxxx

"Here we are, floor thirteen." came the girl. Her hood was down, and she had short, blond hair with a chocolate brown on the end of it. Her face was both familiar to Nessa, and a total mystery. She always had an air about her that somehow reminded her of a long lost friend, but Nessa just couldn't figure out what.

"Exie, can I ask you a question?" asked the girl, looking up at the girl with the black cloak.

"Anything." she said, as they stopped at a door.

"What's my name?" She looked down at her hands. So familiar, yet so distant. She knew whatever name she previously had did not belong from her, and was stolen from her potential Somebody. This much, Exie had told her.

"It's Xylia." Exie informed her. She opened a door for her, the golden roman numerals of 'XIII' lining the top of it. "Here's your room. You can do with it whatever you like, but the number II will probably give you a mission tomorrow, so don't get too comfortable."

Xylia nodded, and entered the room. It seemed almost too plain to be true, but at least it wasn't the blinding white of the castle. Before she knew it, she fell on the bed to make up for the sleep that she lacked last night— wherever it was that she slept.

xxxxx

"Found him," came Leander's voice. He seemed overly proud of this, but Charity had noticed that pride seemed to come easily to him.

"Really?" asked Yuffie, who had been trying and failing at making them food.

"Yeah," his voice came, this time he had walked into the house. Walking behind him was a boy just a little bit shorter than Riku, whose strawberry blond hair was flattened slightly over his face, and messy in the back. Somehow, this looked very good. He had heavily-lidded grey eyes, which was a very rare color, and wore a simple black t-shirt that hugged him perfectly, and baggy blue jeans. He looked around at the rest of them, and then down at the keyblade he was holding.

"Hey, what's your name?" asked Sora, walking up to him. It was odd looking up to anyone his age that wasn't Riku.

"Anton," he replied quietly. His keyblade was similar to Riku's in the color scheme sense, but different as well. The bottom of the keyblade started light, but gradient by gradient got darker until it reached the top, which seemed to be a purple and black bat wing.

"Hey, don't I know you?" asked Charity softly, walking up to him. She studied him carefully, trying to figure out where it was she had met him before.

"You probably had a dream about him or something." Sora suggested.

"It's true," said Kairi, "for some reason keyblade wielders tend to dream about others who can hold a keyblade." Kairi sure was an interesting character that Charity had met the night before; she had dark red hair that was probably longer at a point, but cut to be above her shoulders in a u-shape. Violet eyes poked out from under her bangs, and she wore a purple and pink outfit constantly. Even her keyblade was cute. She seemed to have a thing for Sora and vice-versa, but it was as if this love hadn't been pursued yet.

"No, wait." Charity practically whispered as she looked at him. The time suddenly dawning upon her, she involuntarily widened her eyes, and looked at the boy, "What happened to you? You disappeared. Nessa was so worried."

Anton smiled, "I remember you." he told her. Now that his sentence consisted of more than one word, Charity could get a good feel for his voice. He seemed like he could have the voice of a seventeen year old although he was no older than fifteen, "You're Nessa's friend."

"I'm so confused." Sora admitted.

"Anton's Nessa's cousin. Or... you know." Anton looked confused at this, so she sat him down and they told him the whole story.

xxxxx

"She's in Castle Oblivion?" asked Anton. He suddenly felt anger well up inside of himself, although the rest of them could tell that he was a very quiet boy by nature. His long disappeared keyblade had reappeared in his hands, and he stood up. "What world do we go to first?" he asked, determined. **(Author's Note: If you guys are wondering what happened to Donald and Goofy, just sit your butt tight for another chapter, okay?)**

"Well," Cid said, who had sat down at the computer, "It looks like tha' most heartless activity's in Wonderland."

"Wonderland?" asked Sora, "How random."

"That sounds pretty," Charity mentioned, "what's it like?"

Sora laughed lightly and looked at her, "It's different. But watch out, the heartless flood that place most of the time."

Before they new it, they were in the newly fixed gummi ship and were lifted off to go to Wonderland.

"Hey, I've been wondering something," Kairi said to Charity and Anton, "How come you guys were so willing to come? I would have just... I don't know, dismissed the idea and left it at that if I hadn't gone through what I did."

Charity shrugged, and giggled a little bit, "I guess... it just felt like something I had to do." Anton nodded his head in agreement.

The gummi ship landed, this time skillfully because the two chipmunks were steering, and they walked up in a field. "Okay, where's the rabbit hole?" asked Sora, scratching the back of his head and looking around.

"What rabbit hole?" an odd voice came from around them. The source of the voice wasn't easily defined, so the group ended up looking around like idiots for where it was coming from.

In front of Kairi, a set of grinning teeth appeared. She screamed, and Sora immediately flipped around to see what the problem was. The teeth were soon joined by a large, cat head, and then soon, a striped cat's body, seemingly sleeping in the air.

"What the—?" asked Kairi, a little frightened.

'_That's the Cheshire Cat,' _chimed a familiar voice inside of Kairi. She smiled, something with a name so cute couldn't be so harmful.

"What do you mean 'what rabbit hole'?" Sora finally got to asking. Riku didn't like the look of this cat, and Way to Dawn materialized in his hand.

As if in response to Riku's keyblade, Anton's had appeared in his left hand, mirroring Riku.

"Why, there's no rabbit hole in Wonderland!" he laughed.

"We're already in Wonderland?" Sora asked himself. The cat, however, took this as a question directed towards him.

"Wonderland never ends, wonderland never starts! Wonderland contains memories, but wonderland holds those as untruths! If it's the truth you seek, look towards the light!" he laughed, and one by one disappeared back into nothing.

"What the hell?" asked Charity, "Is every world like this?"

"Thankfully not." Riku replied, smiling.

"Wonderland contains memories... look towards the light?" Sora asked himself. Failing to find a deep metaphor in this, he stared up at the sun for a few seconds.

'_Somehow I don't think that's what he meant.'_ came a voice inside of Kairi. She shook her head, and heaved a long sigh. _**'Sora likes to do things wrong before he figures out the real solution.'**_Kairi thought back to the voice, earning a laugh.

"Memories. Does this look familiar to you?" asked Leander. He kicked a small rock on the ground. Looking at Sora, he waited for an answer.

"Sort of," he said, "Now that I think about it, it almost looks like Pooh's world. The storybook one with the 100 acre woods."

"...Pooh?" asked Anton, grimacing at the idea.

"Sora!" he heard a voice. They all flipped around, and saw a small, fat bear running towards them. Charity's eyes widened, and she backed up a little bit.

"Pooh," said Sora. They exchanged greetings, and Sora finally got down to it, "What's the 100 acre woods doing in Wonderland?" asked Sora.

"Wonderland?" Pooh asked. "Hmm... Think, think, think..." he said, and started pounding his finger into his head, "It's just been the same ol' thing around here!" he said, smiling.

Leander grimaced, "Wonderland contains memories... and wonderland holds those as lies..." His keyblade appeared in his hands, and he charged up at the small bear. Sora and Kairi both exchanged equal looks of shock, but even greater ones when the small bear had turned into a Aerial Knocker heartless and flew out of the way fast.

As if it was cackling, it bounced slightly up and down and charged at Charity. Reacting on impulse, her Savior of Balance had appeared in her hands, and she jumped to the side and hit the heartless away. To her surprise, small orbs had appeared around her that seemed to give her more energy as they were absorbed into her body. Just barely avoiding another dive from the heartless, Charity slashed at the Aerial Knocker and stabbed it. It disappeared into nothing, a heart floating above it and into the air.

"That wasn't so bad." Charity smiled. Leander held on tightly to his Rising Sun.

"It's not over."

As if the whole world around them was disappearing into darkness, heartless began to surround them in a totally dark surrounding.

"We need light!" Sora yelled, "Firaga!" he exclaimed, pointing his Kingdom Key upwards, and fire engulfed close above them, allowing them to see the heartless.

Charity and Anton both fought side to side, mindlessly swiping at the smaller heartless to eliminate what they could, as they knew no special techniques. Avoiding a large body heartless that seemed to ruin the idea of leaving the strong ones for the rest, Charity jumped as high as she could, landing on her feet like a cat on the other side, and attacking it from behind.

Riku, Leander, and Kairi, however, because they had more experience were attacking the larger and stronger heartless. Kairi was ruthlessly attacking a Gargoyle Warrior, and 'killed' it off after only suffering one hit, much to Riku and Leander's surprise. On the other hand, Sora was avoiding attacking heartless while trying to keep the light going.

"That's not working!" Charity said to herself angrily as she hit away another Shadow, "Maybe I can help... what did he do? He just pointed his keyblade up and shouted Firaga. Maybe something more direct?" she asked herself. Leaving Anton to the small Heartless surrounding them, she pointed her keyblade up.

"Light!" she shouted forcefully. Much to her surprise, a small beam of light had shone from the top of her keyblade. "LIGHT!" she shouted even louder. The small beam had elongated itself and was starting to engulf the dark room. Everyone had stopped fighting, even the Heartless, just to look at this spectacular attack. As the light shone throughout the hole area, the Heartless had disappeared in obvious agony, and their surroundings sparkled back into a familiar court room; one in which the Queen was residing at the very top.

xxxxx

Xylia stepped out of the room after a sharp call from a girl that couldn't have been much older than her. She noticed that this Organization, based on the stories of the last one, was a lot younger, but still just as powerful.

Besides Exie and Xylia, the girl that called for her was the only other female in the Organizaiton. The eleven others, not including the overruled Superior, were all male.

"Xylia," the girl of the night repeated, "Saxen is looking for you, he's just down the hall to your left." Nyx was unhooded, and her long, dishwater blond hair was tied up in a ponytail. She wore two earrings, both hoops, one of which contained a key.

Xylia looked down at her hands. She couldn't remember anything before coming to this castle by the defender, Exie, and being given a place to stay. Not arguing with Nyx as Exie had told her about her temper, she walked down the hallway. However, she had passed a door that wasn't white like everything else. It seemed to be stained a deep red, and she could hear struggling going on inside.

Letting her curiosity get the best of her, she wrenched open the door and walked inside. It was generally dark, but she could make out a face and honey blond hair. The boy was chained to the wall by both his wrists and ankles, and seemed to have given up resisting. He was wearing an Organization cloak like the rest of them, but why was he chained up?

"You're the new number thirteen, aren't you?" asked the boy. Xylia cocked her head slightly to the left, but moved closer inside, saying nothing. "I get it. They brought you up Castle Oblivion. You're..." his voice trailed off. His thoughts suddenly strayed.

"I..." Xylia's voice finally broke the silence, "You were the original number thirteen, but now you're number one, right? Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Roxas," he said, "Technically."

"Technically?"

"I'm a Nobody, like the rest of you, so that's my technical name. My Somebody's name was Sora. He had become a heartless once, and I was created. But he was brought back from the darkness. So we both exist now." Roxas explained, "Who are you?"

"I'm Xylia." she said, "I wish I knew my Somebody's name."

Roxas laughed, "I heard the Organization talking about you in the hallway once. You never had a Somebody, but you did have a name, you had a home, and you had a real, beating heart. I think that's why you're so interesting to them. You were, or still are, a Nobody that could feel."

"I don't understand," Xylia admitted, "I don't remember ever having another name. I don't remember anything before this castle. How come you remember your real name?"

"I never had any real memories to begin with," Roxas said, "Except for the memories of a fake life I once led. Hayner, Pence, Olette," he said, and looked down at his upper chest, "I could never forget them, no matter how high up in this castle I go."

"I must not have had many good memories, then," Xylia started, "if I can't remember any of them, let alone my name."

"They're there," Roxas reassured her, nodding slightly, "just look deep in your heart for them, the heart that you were blessed with. You're luckier than most us; you have a way to remember all that you've forgotten because you still have a heart."

"I'll remember that," she said. She had remembered that she was called down by Saxen, and that was good enough for her, "I should go."

"Your name," Roxas started, "is Nessa."

The Xylia that was walking away turned around, "Nessa?" she asked.

"That's right," said Roxas, "don't ever forget that. If you forget that, you lose all hope of remembering everything else."

Xylia smiled, "You're not like the rest of them. You're... safer. Why?"

Roxas looked at her with deep eyes, "because I've walked through the door to the light. I made this new Organization for a good purpose, but I was overruled by everyone going down the Way to Twilight, into the darkness from the light, and put in here."

Xylia nodded. She didn't know how to react to this. She left the room, planning on coming back if she survived her first mission. "Nessa." she whispered to herself as she closed the door behind her. Roxas smiled, and relaxed.

"There is hope." he reassured himself.

xxxxx

"Three worlds," Leander said, falling on his back. "I can't believe it. The 100 Acre Wood, Atlantica, and Traverse Town. All fake memories in Wonderland, and all we had to beat the shit out of Heartless for."

"Kind of reminds me of End of the World." Sora said. They were all resting in the Gummi Ship. They had finally met up with Alice after the three memories they had to go through, and she said that nothing strange had been happening; it was just the Cheshire Cat acting up again. They all planned on checking back later, though.

"It made sense that the Heartless count was high over here," said Leander, "With all of those memories containing at LEAST a hundred Heartless."

Anton, who was always quiet, nodded in agreement.

"Where do they want us to go next?" asked Kairi, "We should probably go back to Hollow Bastion."

Sora agreed, and told Chip and Dale to start the Gummi ship up.

xxxxx

"At least we got to spend the night here again." Charity said to Riku in a whisper. Neither of them could sleep.

"You're a really clever girl, you know that?" asked Riku to Charity, "I don't think even Donald has heard of a Light spell."

"Donald?" asked Charity.

"He's a friend of Sora's, he's big on magic. He's always with Sora's other friend, Goofy, who carries around a shield with him."

Charity giggled quietly, "There's a lot I've missed. I'm still starting to wonder what it was exactly that got me tied up in all of this."

"Keyblade wielders are either totally random, or those with the strongest hearts. We're still trying to figure it out." Riku said. "You know, you're really quiet besides when I'm talking with you one-on-one.

Charity was happy that it was so dark in the room, because her face was turning red. "So are you." she combatted. Of course, her quiet was more of the awkward/quiet 'I can't think of anything to say' quiet. Riku's seemed to be more of the 'I'm badass, don't mess with me' quiet. She respected that more than she respected her own lack of femininity. "I don't know. I guess I just find like I'm most comfortable talking to you. Almost as comfortable as I was talking to Nessa."

Riku gave her an awkward smile, but a true one nonetheless, "Really?" he asked. His silver hair almost shone brighter from the moonlight that flashed in through the window. The skies in Hollow Bastion were always clear and beautiful, Charity had become envious.

Charity nodded, not sure if Riku could see her or not. But she must have been able to see him well enough to put her head on his shoulder. It was oddly comforting and warm, and Charity was surprised at her own courage. "I'm still so worried about her." whispered Charity.

Riku smiled down at her, and shifted so she was only more comfortable, "Finding her won't be the hard part, I'm thinking." he whispered back.

"What will?" she asked.

"Helping her out of the Way to Twilight." Riku responded.

Charity had learned that the Way to Dawn was the road from the darkness into the light. Based on this, she could guess that the Way to Twilight was the road from the light into the darkness. Charity sighed, and fell asleep on his shoulder.

Smiling, Riku fell asleep as well.

_Below the beautiful, blue sky, we slept endlessly._


	4. Don't Mind Me, I'm Only Dying

CHAPTER IV

Don't Mind Me, I'm Only Dying

[NOTE

I hope you liked the last chapter, in case you didn't notice, a LOT happened. XD Enjoy this next one, it probably won't be as insane, but I guess this all depends? x3 I should really plan these things ahead of time.

[/NOTE

Xylia sat on her bed, and stared at a pile of things in the corner that she wasn't necessarily planning to touch. The original number thirteen was Roxas, right? She decided to have a look.

Boxes of notes, mostly. Probably passed by Axel and Roxas when they weren't paying attention to Xemnas. She stopped when she noticed one that looked erased at the end. The note seemed to be almost a diary entry from Roxas. It read,

_It's going to happen soon; I'm going to try to find my Somebody. It seems like a crazy idea, but I can't help it. I feel incomplete without knowing. If any member of the Organization finds this, I'm sorry, but I just had to go._

Xylia smiled. This must have been what he was trying to do when he ended up in an alternate reality with friends and such. She folded it up and put it in the pocket of the jeans she had under her Organization cloak, in hopes of showing it to him shortly.

Saxen, the number II, had given her a mission to do, except it had been delayed until today. She was to go to a place called The Enchanted Glade, which has already been unsealed. Saxen had mentioned that afterwards, she was free to do with the Heartless as she wished, as long as it meant that hearts were collected and sent to the Organization.

Finally giving up her procrastination, she held out her hand and opened a black portal. Stepping through her own for the first time, she at least hoped that she would end up in The Enchanted Glade. "Nessa." she whispered to herself, "stupid name."

xxxxx

"Where to next?" asked Leander, who had just gotten up and stretched. Everyone was crowded around the computer screen in the main room.

"Well, it looks like there're two options. One, another world's been opened. Two, Halloween Town seems to be under a considerable amount'a trouble." Cid replied back. He didn't seem like the happiest apple in the bunch that day. In fact, he looked about ready to shoot someone.

"Better deal with the familiar first." Riku suggested. His hand was on Charity's waist, and Charity could feel a feeling well up inside of her; something good.

Sora looked at Riku, about to agree, but he saw the two together and laughed slightly, "Something happened we don't know about?" he asked.

"Let's just get in the Gummi ship," said Kairi, who seemed oddly angered at the sight of the two, and Sora just staring dumbly. She wished for a second that she kept her hair longer, because Sora tended to pay more attention to her. Hardly thinking about that, she stomped outside, followed by an apologetic Sora. Leander and Anton, however, were discussing what the new world might be.

The Gummi ship blasted off, and they soon found themselves in a very dark and dreary town. It was very familiar to Sora, but for Kairi, Riku, Charity, Leander, and Anton it was quite different. They were all in odd costumes. Sora seemed to be one of a retarded jack 'o lantern, Kairi had a cute witch's outfit on, Riku looked like a werewolf of some sort, Leander looked like Frankenstein, Anton like a vampire, and Charity like a black cat.

"This is... awkward." said Anton quietly.

"Right, you sort of morph based on which world you in to fit in better. You should see Atlantica, it's so cool." Sora told him. Anton nodded.

"Sora, Sora!" came a familiar voice running towards them by the Guillotine Square gate. A very short, fat man that seemed to have a face on either side of his head and looked like a triangle came running up to him.

"Hey, mayor, what's up?" Sora asked.

"It's horrible, just terrible! The Heartless or whatnot are invading this place again, Dr. Finkelstein has been kidnaped, and Jack is out doing who-knows-what in that Christmas place!" he shouted, and started bursting out in a fake sob. Behind his back, though, Kairi and Charity were chatting about how he could really use the South Beach diet.

"...Dr. Finkelstein?" asked Leander, holding back a laugh from this name.

"He's the scientist around here. Thanks, mayor. We should go find Jack first; at least he can help us fight." Sora said. He began to lead them through a graveyard, and to a set of trees with different paintings on them.

"This is creepy," said Kairi, who was staying unnaturally close to Sora, "I wonder what—Ah!" she screamed, as a small, white ghost had appeared in front of her. It had a nose that looked like it could light up, and a dog face.

"Zero!" Sora said, refraining although from petting the dog in fear of going right through him, "You'll have to wait here while we get Jack. I have a feeling I know where he is."

"Where?" asked Riku, running his hands over a tree trunk that seemed to resemble Easter.

"Probably 'suggesting' more to Santa Claus."

"...Santa Claus?" asked Charity, as if it was a joke. As Sora got closer to the tree trunk that resembled Christmas, he got sucked in. Without asking any more questions, the rest of them followed him inside of it. They soon all found themselves in a snowy environment. Small people which Charity guessed were elves were flooding the place, and much noise was coming from a small house ahead of them.

As they entered the house, they could see two people ahead of them arguing. One was unmistakably Santa Claus, and the other was some odd skeleton dressed in a black outfit with a Santa hat on.

"I'm telling you, something's kidnaped Dr. Finkelstein and I think that it might be Oogie in disguise! He was wearing a long, black cloak with the hood up and said something about learning the recipe to create a working heart!"

"There is no recipe to create a working heart, nor is your Dr. Finkelstein in any danger, I assure you! Just do that little hocus pocus that you do over in that foul town and get it overwith."

"That's not Oogie," Sora said, walking closer to the two while the others stayed behind, conversing about the little argument they had just heard, "That's an Organization XIII member."

"Sora, you're back!" Jack the skeleton said happily, as he ran up and shook Sora's hand. Even Santa seemed undeniably happy that he was there, "And you've brought friends! Where are Goofy and Donald?" he asked.

"They had to stay behind at Disney Castle to look after things while King Mickey was gone to try to find his way to Castle Oblivion to interrogate the Organization from the inside. At least that's what he explained in his letter."

"What were you saying about the Organization?" asked Jack.

"Whoever kidnaped Dr. Finkelstein was in a black cloak, right? That would be an Organization XIII member. And before you ask, the Organization has been reborn."

Jack's non-existent eyes widened, "That's horrible! What do they want with him?"

"Probably just like you said," came Riku, who walked up, "to learn the recipe to create the perfect heart."

"We have to go save him! Thanks for everything, Mr. Sandy Claws!" Jack said, as they rushed out of the house.

"IT'S SANTA CLAUS!" he shouted back.

They all entered Halloween Town once more, and Charity looked up at Jack. "You don't look very healthy." she mentioned.

"And you're just a girl in a cat suit." Jack replied lazily, as he tried to remember where it was that the Organization member had taken Dr. Finkelstein.

Charity scoffed quietly, and Riku's eyes narrowed.

"He was taken to some abandoned house in the Square," Jack mentioned to Sora and everyone else, who were still running through the graveyard. As they made it to the Square, Jack pointed out the house in which Dr. Finkelstein had been kidnaped.

"It's locked," Leander complained, as he continued to try and wrench the door open.

Charity immediately whipped out her keyblade, and pointed it out the door. With a beam of light, the door unlocked.

"Oh." said Leander.

"Wow, you're really determined." said Sora.

"Nessa might be in there!" Charity shouted, rushing in. The room was wooden and totally empty, except for a character in a black cloak and a strange, small man tied up in the corner. **Author's Note: No bondage/mature scenes intended.**

"I was waiting for you to get here," came a voice. It was that of a man, and it came from the character under the cloak. Something hot rose up in Charity, and this time it wasn't for Riku. This was pure anger.

"What did you do with Nessa?!" she asked angrily. The rest of the group was very astounded at how forceful she was.

The man laughed, "I didn't touch her. You can thank Exie for that one."

Charity's keyblade began to glow with power; something that Sora's or anyone else's in that group had never done.

"Charity, wait!" Sora said, "You can't let your keyblade get like that! You have to calm down a little bit."

"Calm down?!" asked Charity, as if the idea was crazy.

"Now I can kill two birds with one stone," said the man, "get rid of this 'order of keys' and find the recipe for a perfect heart!"

The small man in the corner seemed to break free of the tape covering his mouth, "You're crazy! We've tried to make the perfect heart and failed! There is no recipe for a heart!"

"Shut it!" said the man, tempered. He lowered his hood to reveal a boy around Riku's age and height, with medium length metallic grey hair, and two differently colored eyes; one a golden yellow and the other a silver.

"The 'Order of Keys'?" asked Anton quietly.

"The Order of Keys. That's what the Organization is calling you now; you must be proud. You're famous at the Castle Oblivion."

"That wouldn't make me proud for anything!" Charity shouted, and charged at the Organization member with Savior of Balance in hand.

"Fools." he said, and charged back at her as well. The rest of them joined in, and blindly attacked the Organization member.

"Aeraga!" shouted Sora, protecting everybody in the group to all of his abilities with a sweep of wind. Charity continued to use her signature light magic, and Kairi focused her skills on Blizzard magic. She was taught this the night before from Sora, and got a hang of it much faster than he did.

This Organizaton member held a short scepter, in which he seemed to have a metal element power with.

After about ten minutes of straight fighting, Kairi and Anton had already been knocked out, and Charity was close to breaking. Riku had finally had enough of this.

"Say goodnight!" he shouted, and stabbed his keyblade into the heart of the Organization member. He fell on his back, and looked up.

Sora walked up to him, "Where's the Organization attacking next?" Sora demanded. The Organization member simply laughed as he disappeared into darkness.

Kairi groaned and sat up. It quickly dawned upon her that the battle was over.

"That was too easy." Charity said, shaking her head. "He must have been one of the weaker members."

"I wouldn't be surprised." said Riku pessimistically.

Kairi, however, had been looking out the window, "It looks like the Heartless are gone, though." she mentioned, happily.

Sora looked down on the ground. It created a large, keyhole shape.

"That must be the keyhole for this town." said Riku.

"But it wasn't here before. Maybe they've all changed. Just great." Sora mumbled off. He pointed his keyblade at the hole, and in flashes of brilliant light it had sealed up.

After returning Dr. Finkelstein to his laboratory, they found themselves in the Gummi Ship, and Charity deemed that world a failure.

"Nessa wasn't there." she explained to them.

"But that's not something that you can control." Kairi reassured her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"I guess. We have to try this new world." Charity decided aloud.

xxxxx

As they all arrived in this new world, they realized that they didn't seemed to have changed in appearance at all.

"It's slightly normal, then." Leander remarked sarcastically. They were in the middle of a beautiful forest with a stream going through it. It seemed that in every direction they looked, there were animals living in peace.

"Well now, I see you all seem to be a bunch with the best intentions. Hoho!" came a voice of what seemed to be an old woman. Looking around, Kairi was the first to notice that it came from a face that almost seemed to be carved into a tree.

"Whoa," said Leander, "Who are you?" he asked. Nobody sensed any malevolence coming from the tree, so they were perfectly okay with talking to her. Er, it.

"You can call me Grandmother Willow." said the tree happily. Sora walked up to her; he was best at making friends in other worlds.

"I'm Sora, and these are my friends Kairi, Riku, Leander, Anton, and Charity. We came from—"

Grandmother Willow shushed him, "You came from other worlds. You, Riku, and Kairi all came from Destiny Islands, Leander and Anton came from Hollow Bastion, and Charity came from Azure Daybreak. You're here to find a friend of Charity's whom you lost to an evil organization."

"That's right! How did you know that?" asked Sora.

Grandmother Willow laughed, "I am nature, I know more than you think."

"Where can we find her?" asked Charity, getting closer to her and putting her right hand on Grandmother Willow's bark.

"Sadly, I can't help you with that one, you see, I can't move!" she said, with the slightest bit of a positive tone in her voice, "But I do know who you can find that can help you get to your friend." she reassured you.

"That would be great." Charity said happily. Riku smiled; he liked it when Charity was happy. It was very odd for him to feel this way towards a girl; the closest he ever got was a brother-sister bond with Kairi. He could honestly say that he never felt this way about anybody before.

"The one who you seek is a girl named Pocahontas. She can help you to find your friend without much of a problem. All I ask in return is to seal the keyhole to this place. The heartless are brutal here."

"It's a deal." said Sora, smiling, "Do you know where we can find Pocahontas?" he asked.

"When you leave the area of under my tree, simply head west for about five minutes. You will find a tribe there; they're not very welcoming of men who are not originally from their tribe, so be very careful."

"Thanks!" Sora shouted back, as they all began making their way to the tribe.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" asked Kairi to Sora, who insisted on leading everyone there.

"I'm positive!" he responded.

In less than five minutes, they realized they were all lost.

"I thought she said we go west!" Sora complained.

"She did," Riku said, shaking his head, "and then you insisted that we go east."

"How are we going to find her now?" asked Leander.

"I swear, you're always looking on the downside of things!" Kairi finally bursted out to Leander.

"Will you all just shut up?!" shouted Charity, "We're not going to get anywhere with you all arguing, and I want to find Nessa."

Anton nodded in agreement, and, for once, spoke up. "I'd like to find my cousin too, so if you'd stop trying to emotionally kill each other, maybe we could reason this out and find Pocahontas." he suggested.

"Hm?" came a voice from the field in which they stepped into. A girl with a dark ivory skin walked out, her black hair was swaying in the slightest breeze and her black eyes shown beautifully under the sunlight.

"Are you Pocahontas?" asked Charity, after they stared at her in disbelief for a second.

Pocahontas nodded and looked at the six of them. "I was sent to find help. Strange, black beings are invading my people and our village, and an odd keyhole appeared in one of the trees. Except, it's being guarded by this girl in a black suit."

"That's Nessa!" Charity said.

"You know her?" asked Pocahontas, "Are you dangerous as well?" she asked.

Charity's eyes widened in surprise, "No, she wasn't always like that. Could you take us to see her?" she asked.

Nodding her head, Pocahontas silently showed the group the way to the village. Sora kept Grandmother Willow's warning in mind about the tribe, but went forward anyway.

As they made it to the village, they were lucky enough to avoid everybody of Pocahontas's tribe because she knew a different way around. Meeting up at the tree that was being guarded, Charity gasped in disbelief.

Xylia was standing in front of a tree with a keyhole carving on it, her hands behind her back and her face unhooded. Her hair was tied back loosely, and she had an obvious difference in her expression. She looked dangerous.

"Nessa!" Charity exclaimed. She ran closer to her.

"Nessa..." asked Xylia, "How do you know my real name?" she asked.

Charity blinked once, and then laughed, "Well, that's easy, you've been my friend since first grade." she said obviously.

"Charity, remember, she went up Castle Oblivion." Riku warned her.

"What I'm curious about," Sora said, walking up with Kingdom Key in hand, "is how _you_ know your real name."

"The original Superior told me." Xylia mentioned.

"Xemnas?" asked Kairi, her hands shaking slightly.

"No, Roxas." responded Xylia.

Sora's eyes widened; so it was true, Roxas was the superior of the new Organization XIII. At least, he was at a point.

Xylia's expression suddenly turned into a twisted smile, "And you all are the Order of Keys." She held out her hands, and in them came a long sword, and in the blade were leaves and branches engraved with emerald and tiger's eye filling.

"Nessa, wait!" shouted Charity, who was against her better judgement. Her Savior of Balance appeared in her hand, only making Xylia's expression more twisted.

"Stop calling me Nessa!" she shouted, rushing towards Charity with her sword. Charity just hardly avoided the first swipe, but was sliced deeply in her right arm by the second.

"That's your _name_!" shouted Charity, who refused to attack her with her keyblade.

"My _name_ is Xylia, Number XIII in the Organization! I've been there my whole life!" she shouted, angrily.

Backing up a little bit, this statement almost brought Charity to tears. She really didn't remember anything; and they had been friends since they were both six years old. They did everything together. Flashbacks flooded Charity's mind of starting high school, jr. high, _middle_ school, even. The constant times they were together and the promises they made. They all happened in one second, although it felt like a lifetime. Charity still couldn't get herself to attack Xylia.

"Charity, stay back." said Riku, who walked up in front of her and blocked Xylia's sword with his Way to Dawn.

"How cute," spat Xylia, "You can die together."

**Author's Note: I know, cliffhanger, annoying. So this wasn't a very eventful chapter, like I anticipated, but the next one will make up for it, I promise. :D**


	5. Swimming Through Sick Lullabies

CHAPTER V

Swimming Through Sick Lullabies

Xylia charged violently at Riku with her sword. Riku, though, was much more skilled at fighting than Xylia was. Even if she thought that she had been fighting with the Organization her whole life, her techniques certainly didn't show it.

"Don't kill her!" shouted Charity, who was now in a fetal position on the ground, closing her ears to the sound of blood being spilt and screaming.

Riku didn't seem to hear her. Xylia had wounds all over her legs and arms, and one on her shoulder that was dangerously close to her neck. Most of it, though, was internal bleeding. Riku, on the other hand, had one scar on his cheek, and a large cut running down his left leg. Still, much less damaged than Xylia was. The rest of the group stayed back, leaving this fight to Riku. They knew when they weren't wanted in a fight.

"Give up!" Xylia commanded Riku, also ignoring Charity's command. If anything, she was angered by it. How could this girl remember nine years of friendship when she couldn't? Was this girl the memories of which Roxas had told her about?

"The day I give up," started Riku, "is the day I let you kill Charity!" he shouted, rushing at her with the keyblade. The next strike would surely be fatal.

"STOP!" Charity shouted. She had ran up to Riku, and her arms were around his stomach. He stopped dead in his tracks, almost knocked over. Her embrace was so warm. He slowly lowered his keyblade, and put his free hand over one of Charity's.

Xylia was gasping loudly. For once, she was actually afraid of being attacked.

"You see that?!" Charity shouted from behind Riku, "What do you feel? Fear! You feel fear!"

"I feel nothing!" Xylia weakly hissed.

"And I'm sure you feel no shame for lying to yourself just now." Charity said weakly, letting go of Riku and walking in front of him to meet Xylia face-to-face.

"You have a heart, your potential somebody's or not. It's yours, you can feel. You're not like the Organization," at this, Xylia's feet pounded further into the ground, and she mustered all of the strength she could just to hold her sword upright, "you don't belong there. You belong here, with us."

Xylia's eyes watered slightly. _'Why am I crying?' _she asked herself. _'I don't even know this girl_'. It was then that Xylia had remembered what Roxas had told her. He had said that no matter what memories you don't have, the strongest ones will remain etched in your heart. Was she feeling a memory of this girl, but not remembering it?

Charity managed a smile, even though her face was turning pink and her vision was blurring with salty, warm tears. She held out her hand and waited for Xylia to grab it. "Nessa." she said.

Xylia, too, held out her hand. However, before she could hold Charity's, instead, a black portal appeared in between the two of them. She must have walked through it, because it disappeared and she was gone.

Standing in disbelief, Charity felt her knees give out on her. She fell to the ground on her knees, uncaring about the rain that had just started to pour over everyone and everything, uncaring about the dirt she was kneeling in, and uncaring about her friends that were worried about her. Nessa really was gone. Xylia was here. There was nothing she could do.

Riku frowned in sympathy, and walked in front of her. Kneeling, he threw his arms around the crying Charity. The rest of them stood in the back to let them have their moment. "You tried all you could." Riku said.

Charity was bawling like a baby, "My best friend in the world's gone! I didn't do all I could. I did nothing. She's not Nessa, she's not. She's Xylia... Xylia..." she cried.

Riku only held her tighter, "We'll get her back. I swear to you, we'll get her back and she'll remember. If it's the last thing I do."

Charity smiled despite her red and sparkling face, "You're the only one I can talk to." she repeated to him from the night before, "You... promise?" she asked.

Riku let go, and put his hands on her shoulders so he could look her in the face. "I promise." he said, and in a slow move pressed his lips to hers.

Kairi gasped sharply, putting her hands over her mouth. She then looked over at Sora angrily. Sora looked back at Kairi, blushing deeply, and seriously having no idea why Kairi was angry at him. What did he do?

Riku opened his seafoam eyes, and pulled away softly from Charity, who was still in a slight shock. Slight, but blissful, "Let's seal this keyhole and get to Hollow Bastion." he said. He then smiled and looked over at Sora.

Getting the point, Sora nodded and Kingdom Key appeared in his hands. Pointing it at the tree trunk, a flash of light blinded the surrounding area. Nothing existed except him, his keyblade, and a tree. **Author's Note: No tree-hugging innuendos intended.** The hole was sealed, and disappeared off of the tree for good.

Riku grabbed Charity's hand, which reminded Charity of when it seemed Xylia almost grabbed hers, and helped her up.

"Let's go to the Gummi Ship." Leander said, trying to refrain from being his proud, sarcastic, or otherwise bitchy self.

xxxxx

"I'm disappointed in this Organization," Saxen told the ten members standing in front of him. "Number XIII lost terribly to one of the Order of Keys, and Number IX all out disappeared. I want results from now on, you hear me?"

As if in a marching band or a military, which are almost the same things, they nodded at the exact same time and fell out. As Xylia walked back by her room which still bore the large, golden roman numeral of XIII on it, she was stopped by Nyx and Exie, the only two other females in the Organization, and the only two she really talked to.

"Hey, Xylia, what happened?" asked Exie.

Xylia didn't seem to want to talk about anything. How she lost, how she was called by her original name, or how she _felt something_. "He was strong." was all she mumbled.

"Saxen's a dumbass. He shouldn't have sent you on your first mission to some place so hard." Nyx said soothingly.

"But I've been training for this my whole life as a Nobody." Xylia said, as if reprimanding herself.

Exie and Nyx both exchanged similar looks of worry. At least they had Somebody's that were long lost in the darkness as an excuse for not being there, but Xylia truly thought that she was there her whole life. "Sure." said Exie, trying to drop that subject.

"You can't help what already happened. We'll go with you on your next." Nyx told her, and looked at Exie who nodded. They were so similar, yet so opposite. Like night and day.

"Thanks." said Xylia, saying goodnight and retreating to her room. As she flopped on her bed, she noticed a crunching noise in her jeans pocket, and she remembered; The note. She wanted to go talk to Roxas again.

Leaving her room ever so quietly, she rounded the corner in a hallway to enter Roxas's room, only to be faced by number IV, Xenos, right at the start of the new hallway. He had golden hair, and almost white eyes that seemed as though they could be engulfed by anything at any second.

"What are you doing out of your room?" he asked threateningly.

"Nothing," said Xylia, standing her ground. "Glass of water?" she asked, sarcastically. Deciding not to argue with her 'elder', she turned back around and went into her room. "Just perfect," she said to herself, "now I probably won't even be able to talk to Roxas again." She pulled out the note, and read the front of it once more. A note from Roxas to the Organization from when he left to go find his Somebody. She turned it over, and grabbed a pen. 'Nessa' she wrote on the back.

"Now I can't forget."

xxxxx

"We didn't get to get rid of the Organization member," Riku lied to the the Hollow Bastion restoration committee, "but we did get to seal the keyhole."

"Do you need to stay here another night?" asked Aerith, in her usual comforting state of manner. Just from looking at Charity, she could tell that she had a rough day, and Riku maybe even rougher as she bandaged the wound in his leg.

"We probably should," Sora admitted, looking over at Charity. Anton nodded in agreement, being his usual, quiet self. It was odd for him to see his cousin so ruthless, but he had disappeared for a few years as he was brought over to Hollow Bastion by Heartless accidentally, he wasn't sure how much of anything had changed.

"Actually," Cid chimed in, "it's probably best that you do and then check out Hollow Bastion 'ere for us. The heartless count has gone way up, and I coulda sworn we saw a buncha Nobodies just today." Leon nodded quietly in agreement.

"Hollow Bastion it is!" said Sora, in his usual happy tone.

Later that day, everyone was either lounging around Hollow Bastion or pigging out on Aerith's food in Merlin's house. **Author's Note: Does anyone else find it quite odd that they've been to Merlin's house about three or four times already and I haven't even mentioned Merlin?**

"Sora!" Kairi called playfully to Sora, as he was walking around the marketplace with his hands behind his head. He turned around at the voice and smiled at Kairi.

"Kairi." he said. They began to walk together, this time Sora a little more tense about any relaxed positions he could find himself in.

"That was pretty upsetting earlier, huh?" Kairi asked, being a girl and trying to get Sora's mind on the 'Riku and Charity' scene.

Sora blushed thinking about it, "Yeah, it was kinda weird."

Kairi gave an angry smirk, "Weird?" she looked away.

'_Ah, crap, what do I do?' _Sora asked himself. As subtle as possible, he lunged to hold her hand, but in the process Kairi moved her hand to move her bangs out of her face, and Sora fell on his back on the ground. _'Stupid,'_ he thought, _'You can defeat thousands of Heartless, Organization members, and make it to Kingdom Hearts, but you can't hold a girl's hand?'_

**Author's Note: There's your comic relief, enjoy it. xP**

"I guess that was kind of upsetting, huh?" asked Yuffie, sitting down next to Charity, who was watching the news.

"What?" she asked, as she still thought Yuffie had no idea what happened earlier.

"You know, Nessa and everything. Bummer."

Charity raised an eyebrow, "How did you know about that?"

Yuffie laughed, "I implanted a small camera into Leander's cheek when he was really young because nobody trusted him. He always thought it was a stubborn zit."

Charity couldn't help but find herself laughing, "Wow, that's kind of creepy."

Yuffie shrugged, but smiled as she flipped through channels, "It was Leon's idea."

This only made Charity laughed harder, and she needed that.

xxxxx

The next morning, everyone got up bright and early, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and with sparkles in their eyes to get started on Hollow Bastion.

"WHY THE HELL ARE WE GETTIN' UP SO EARLY?" shouted Leander angrily, as he walked out scratching his head.

"It's seven." Leon told his 'nephew' bitterly, "I get up at five thirty almost every day. You can get over it."

Leander stuck his tongue out at everyone, and walked back into the guest room to get changed into real clothes.

"Okay, so what area of Hollow Bastion are we talking about?" asked Sora, walking up to Cid and the computer. He felt odd around Kairi, and thoroughly embarrassed, even if she did think it was cute and kissed him on the cheek for it.

"It's a construction area that tha' outlets of the restoration committee've been workin' on. A whole new part o' the town. The heartless are goin' crazy over there, we're thinking that we're accidentally buildin' the extension over where the new keyhole location is." Cid responded. His southern drawl was getting quite annoying.

"Which way's that?" asked Riku. He had his arm around Charity's shoulders, who had her arm around his waist.

"South." said Cid.

"Figures." mumbled Leander, who had sped back to meet them all.

"Let's get going!" said the enthusiastic Sora. Charity was surprised how he could keep a straight face after all that he's been through. Then again, he had his friends with him. But it must have been hard to leave his family right after he had returned home from a long journey.

"Okay." said Kairi brightly, and they made their way outside.

If it weren't for the defense system, the group would have probably gone crazy. The closer they got to the construction area, the more and more heartless were appearing. They even had to fight the occasional Nobody, which more than likely meant that there was an Organization member close by. "Dammit!" shouted the temper-prone Leander, swiping his Rising Sun around like it was the last time he ever would.

"We're almost there," Sora reassured them, even though he had no idea, as he finished off a simple Dusk. They continued on their way.

"I can see half-buildings, that's probably it." Charity said. Anton nodded.

"That's probably— Oh. My. God." Kairi said, as they looked down from the cliff, in which underneath the construction was going on.

There must have been a thousand Nobodies stampeding down there.

"You think Cid underestimated a bit?" asked Charity to Riku, as they made their way down the spiral of a way down to their left.

"Maybe a bit." Riku said, sarcastically. "Remember," he said to Charity, "Nobodies are much stronger than Heartless, and smarter. Be careful."

Charity smirked, "Coming from the cripple." She pecked him on the cheek lightly, "I'll be fine."

All of the keyblades were readied. Kairi's Destiny Blade, Sora's Kingdom Key, Riku's Way to Dawn, Leander's Rising Sun, Anton's Way to Twilight, and Charity's Savior of Balance. Charging at the Nobodies, they started the Thousand Nobody Battle. **Author's Note: I had to make up Kairi's keyblade, because from my knowledge it was never given a name. And as another note, I had to make the thousand Nobody battle. xD The Thousand Heartless Battle was just so fun.**

xxxxx

Xylia sighed. Xenos was gone, so she could go visit Roxas. To avoid any further interruptions, she quickly left her room and entered Roxas's, locking the door behind her. "Roxas," she mentioned.

Roxas grinned, "Nice to see you, Nessa."

For some reason Xylia didn't mind being called Nessa by Roxas, probably because he was the one that told her. She smiled back, "Hey, I found this note. You wrote it, right?" she asked. She unfolded it and put it up to Roxas's face so he could read it. After all, he was incapable of holding it himself, being chained up.

Roxas smiled, "Yup, I wrote that. I had no idea I'd end up with a real life after that, if even just for a little while."

Xylia sat down on the floor, and looked up at Roxas, "Did they forget about you totally after you were no longer a part of their lives?" she asked.

Roxas shook his head. "When I returned to Sora, I looked at a few of his memories. Sora looked familiar to them, almost like me. But they didn't remember me."

Xylia made a lopsided frown, "I'm sorry. It must have been hard on you."

Roxas shook his head, "It's okay. Nobodies like me can't become Somebodies. Again, that's why you're lucky. You have a Somebody's heart. You can be either one."

Xylia shook her head back, "I'm tired of being one or the other. I don't feel like I belong in this Organization, and I don't feel like I belong with that group that attacked me. I've been here my whole life, at least, I think I have, and I still don't think I belong here. Is that wrong?"

Roxas shook his head, "It's great to be a Nobody when you can't feel. But Nobodies that can... it's tough. If I were you, I would be a Somebody, but that's just my advice." Xylia still found Roxas so enigmatic. He had a real personality, real likes, dislikes, fears, and emotions, although he had no heart except for the one he used to share with Sora.

"You know, I like talking to you. It's like, I know who you are, but I've never met you before just a couple days ago. You know?" she asked.

Roxas smiled, "I know."

"Did I know you... before?" she asked.

Roxas shook his head, "No, but I knew about you."

xxxxx

Charity, gasping for breath, finished off the last Nobody in the crowd. If she didn't get much stronger from that huge fight, she didn't know what would make her stronger. It felt good to be tired like everyone else, because she didn't feel worthless.

"Bravo," came a voice, and mono clapping.

"You," Sora said, gripping his keyblade. Tired or not, he wouldn't stop fighting, "Which member of the Organization are you?" he asked.

"I am number IV, Xenos." he said, bowing. This one certainly had the personality of a deadbeat Hollywood star.

"You're the one that unlocked Hollow Bastion," Leander said with his fiery temper starting up. He charged at the Organization member with his keyblade. Number IV skillfully dodged it, leaving Leander to trip over a pile of leftovers from the construction.

"You're all so young," Sora antagonized, "At least the old Organization had experience."

Xenos laughed, "If I could feel, I'd be very angry right now." His white eyes creeped Kairi out to the point of not being able to look at him.

"I'm sure you would." Sora said, sarcastically. As he charged at the Organization member next, he went right through him. Sora could feel a sharp pain in his heart as he did so, and then looked over at Xenos. He looked almost entirely like Sora, but a bit taller, and obviously more evil.

"Perfect." he said. Creating a wall of darkness, he didn't allow the others in, and it was time for a one on one battle with Sora.

"I'll send you to the darkness and back again!" shouted Sora, charging. The group could hear a huge clash of keyblades, which was exactly what was going on. As Xenos swung his keyblade at Sora's head, he ducked down and slid himself underneath Xenos and ended up behind him, and swung his keyblade three times, hitting Xenos twice.

Xenos pointed his new keyblade at Sora, and shouted, "Firaga!" and blasted bullets of fire at Sora, almost all of which he skillfully dodged.

"Nice power, but I know myself too well." said Sora. "Gravira!" he shouted, pointing his keyblade at Xenos. Xenos could breathe, and was sent to the ground. Although, as he was on the ground, Xenos tripped Sora with his keyblade and sent a blizzard at him.

The group became worried as the fight went on for almost an hour, and Riku and Kairi were desperate to get inside to help him. Even Charity tried her light spell to temporarily lift the darkness, but couldn't get in.

"You can't beat me at a stalemate!" Xenos shouted, laughing maniacally as Sora stabbed and missed.

"Oh really?" asked Sora, "Watch me." He jumped behind him, and stabbed him in the back. Gasping for breath, Xenos fell to the floor, back in his original form, and disappeared into nothing. A dramatic exit for a dramatic Nobody. **Author's Note: ORLY:jumps:kills:pwns: xD Sorry. I had to.**

The darkness lifted, and Kairi ran up, throwing herself into Sora's arms. "I was so worried about you."

xxxxx

"You should go, it's getting late." Roxas told Xylia. Xylia stood up, and nodded. She had just heard a story of when Naminé was at Castle Oblivion and replaced Sora's old memories with ones of her own. It sounded really cool. Somehow, the name Naminé rang a bell as well, but not a loud enough one.

"I should." she said, standing up.

"It's nice to have someone to talk to every once in a while." Roxas said.

Xylia smiled, "It is, isn't it?" She left the room, and Roxas smiling.

"She reminds me so much of Naminé." Roxas sighed. "Don't worry... I'll come back to you. I promise."


	6. Lion Fell In Love With The LambAwakening

CHAPTER VI

And the Lion Fell In Love with the Lamb/Awakening

[NOTE

If you've read this far, I applaud you. It's hard. xD Anyway, there will be a lot happening in this chapter, so keep your eyes peeled. Again, thanks for reading. :3

[/NOTE

It was night in Hollow Bastion. Unlike the first night they spent there, the silence wasn't calming, but it was eerie. A black portal appeared in the main room, but nobody was awake to see it. A girl in a cloak stepped in the room, hooded and curious.

"These were the people that I was friends with." she whispered to herself. It was odd to say that, like looking at a total stranger. She walked over to the sleeping Charity. Although she seemed to hate her for calling her Nessa while she was awake, Charity seemed harmless sleeping. Taking one final look at her, she sweeped around and down the hallway.

In a room with an open door, she saw a sleeping boy in a bed. He had red and green hair. "Looks like Christmas came early." Xylia murmured to herself. She walked up closer to the boy, and lightly pushed some of his hair out of his face. "You look kind of cute when you sleep, you know that?" she whispered to him.

A groan. Xylia froze, as she saw the boy wake up. His large eyes blinked once, and then stared up in disbelief. "Nessa?" he asked. Somehow, she seemed very different from when he first picked her up at the school with Charity, and it had hardly been a week. It then dawned upon him. He sprang from bed, and Rising Sun appeared in his hands.

"Calm down." Xylia said, sitting on his bed and looking out the window, "I'm not any more in the mood than you are."

Leander scoffed, and Rising Sun disappeared, "So what are you doing here?" he asked.

"Looking back at my 'memories', or, should I say, my... not memories." Xylia replied airily. "Did I live here or something?"

Leander shook his head, slightly gingerly. "You lived in a place called Azure Daybreak. Or, at least, that's what we call it."

"Another world?" asked Xylia, in a very uncaring tone.

"Yeah." he mumbled.

"Were all of you my friends for a long time?" she asked, looking upwards.

"No, just Charity. We only knew you for about a day. But Anton, the quiet one, he's your cousin." Leander mentioned.

"Hah," said Xylia, standing up, "Funny." She walked towards the middle of his room. "It's funny how you can have all of these memories and in less than four hours forget them all. You have no idea what it's like to look at a person that you're supposed to be closest to and have no idea who they are."

Leander remembered when Charity was crying about that; he really did have no idea. Not only would it hurt the person who couldn't remember, but it also hurts the person who's supposed to be remembered. He shook him head, "I don't." he admitted. "So, you do feel." he mentioned.

"I guess I'd have to be," Xylia thought airily, "I have my potential Somebody's heart— the only thing it does is give me emotion. It doesn't even beat anymore." she laughed slightly, putting her hand to her chest, waiting for a reassuring thump to remind her that she was human, but nothing. "And I guess I wouldn't have this weird feeling in my gut every time I look at you, either." she said, and looked back at Leander and winked.

Leander blushed slightly. He wasn't used to feeling like that towards anybody, so he shrugged it off. "You'd better get going," he said, "it'll be five soon, and Leon could wake up at any minute."

Xylia laughed, "Okay. But the second I leave this portal, I'm back on the Organization's side. Hear me?" she asked, as she put out her hand and a dark portal appeared in front of her.

"Then wait," Leander said. He walked up to her, and kissed her passionately for at least a minute straight. Finally pulling away, he glanced at her shocked expression, and smirked.

"I—"

"Go home," Leander said, "and visit tomorrow." he took her by the shoulders, and turned her around. She walked into the portal, and turned her head to look at Leander as it closed behind her. Was she really feeling love?

xxxxx

"Guys, wake up!" shouted Kairi. Charity, who had fallen asleep on Riku's chest again, groaned and stretched, scratched her head and elevated herself back upwards. Riku came to shortly after, and Sora was the first as of how close he was. Anton, however, continued to sleep like a baby, and Leander took his own sweet time. When he did walk out, however, he seemed oddly proud of himself.

"You look more full of pride than ever." Charity mentioned.

"You would too." smirked Leander. He didn't want to mention last night as a fear of sounding crazy. He probably already was crazy to most of them.

"Everyone, pay attention!" Kairi said. She didn't have to say a word as she held up a note in a bottle with the King's seal on it.

"The King!" gasped Sora, who grabbed the bottle out of her hands, pulled out the cork, and dropped the note in. He unrolled it, and read it aloud to everyone, "Dear Order of Keys, I've finally found the way to get to Castle Oblivion, since you fellas all know that it's been moved. I'll meet you all at Merlin's house, and I'll show you the way on the Gummi Ship. Not only that, but I got a stone from an old friend that can protect your memories— you'd have to see it to believe it! I'll be there shortly."

"Shortly." said Anton, "When does that mean?"

Leon sighed. He had been awake for a while, and was obviously thinking clearer than the rest of them. "Considering how far away he is, probably a day from now."

"A day?" asked Riku. He sighed to himself, "If I still had the power of darkness, we'd be there in a second."

Charity looked up at him, "It's alright." she reassured him, "You're better off in the light, anyway." she smiled.

"So what do we do in that day's time?" asked Charity.

"Get a well-earned rest?" Leander suggested lazily.

"I guess we'd have to." said Anton.

Charity smiled, "Actually, I have a better idea. How about we all visit Azure Daybreak?" she asked them all.

Anton's eyes widened, especially. For the first time in his life, he felt excited, "I could find my mom. She'd know I was okay... we could do that..."

"And we could unlock the keyhole, if we find it." Sora said.

"And I could tell my mom to where I disappeared to for a week..." laughed Charity.

"To Azure Daybreak, then!" Kairi said happily, taking King Mickey's letter from Sora and placing it on the counter with the computer.

xxxxx

The Gummi ship was almost silent out of anticipation. Charity kept squeezing Riku's hand, because she was both excited to see her mother, and nervous to face her. Anton seemed as happy as ever, and Sora and Kairi also seemed excited because they never actually stepped foot in Azure Daybreak.

As the Gummi Ship landed, they all walked outside.

"Fresh breeze," said Charity, smelling the air. It was beautiful out. She didn't even see any Heartless. "We even landed close to my house," she said, as they stared down the curved neighborhood, at the end of which was her house.

It only took about five minutes to walk there, but when they did, Charity's mother practically ran out and hugged her. She began to go into a fit of words. "I didn't bother to call the police because I know you tend to do things like this, but I was so worried! Where have you been? Who are these people? You look starving!" she said. Charity's mom resembled her a lot, except much bigger and obviously older.

"To answer all of your questions," said Charity, who was being crushed by the hug, "I've been to a lot of different places, these are all keyblade wielders, and I just ate."

Charity's mom let go of her, and looked at her in disbelief, "What are you talking about?" she asked. Charity sighed.

"Let's go into the house and I'll tell you." All of them but Anton went in, who went farther down the neighborhood to go find his mom and dad.

xxxxx

"...And after that letter, Leon said that he'd come in about a day, so I came here to make sure that you knew I was okay." Charity finished. Her voice was hoarse; she was careful not to leave anything out. Her mother stared at her in shock. "I know it's probably hard to believe, but it's all true." she reassured her. "Look."

Holding out her hand, the Savior of Balance appeared quickly, earning a quick gasp from her mom. "See?"

Her mother calmed down, and nodded her head. "I understand. You're going to stay for today, though?" she asked, hopefully.

Charity was surprised at her mother's understanding. She nodded.

"Alright. Go up to your room, and I'll make everybody lunch." Charity hugged her mom again, and they all made their way up to Charity's room. Kairi sat on the bed, Sora and Riku on chairs, and Charity stood. It was at this time that she was glad Leander decided to stay back and Anton went to visit his family.

"I should warn you, there was a gnat in here the other day." she said. Charity's room seemed to reflect her perfectly; confusing. The walls were a light pink, but lined in punk and alternative rock posters. Her desk had both a laptop and makeup, and her books consisted of both manga and novels. Kairi seemed very interested in the full-length mirror attached to her closet door. It was as if she could see Naminé when she looked through it.

"I don't think that's what you should be worried about," Kairi said, looking around the door, as a Shadow crawled out from inside. Soon enough, three others had come up from the ground.

"Shit!" shouted Charity. She was still holding Savior of Men, but she noticed Destiny Blade, Kingdom Key, and Way to Dawn appear in all of their hands. It only took a few quick swipes to get rid of these, but Charity was worried. "Dammit! I thought that maybe they were gone!" They all rushed back downstairs, earning a worried look from her mother when they slammed the door to the house behind them.

What Charity feared was true. Heartless were surrounding everything. "We've got to find the keyhole and fast." Kairi decided. They all agreed on this.

xxxxx

It was as if the keyhole was nowhere to be found. They checked everywhere that seemed to be of any importance in the world that Charity knew as her own, and the Heartless were only multiplying faster. "We have to think." said Charity.

"Should we get into the tree?" asked Riku.

Charity grimaced at the idea of going inside that tree trunk again.

"Wait," Kairi said, emotionally saving Charity, "I think I know where it might be. We have to go back to your house," she told Charity.

"Okay." Charity agreed. They ran back to her house, defeating every Heartless they could along the way.

They rushed up to her room immediately when they entered the house, and Kairi walked up to the mirror. She stuck her keyblade right through it, and it didn't damage the mirror at all.

"My mirror?" asked Charity. There were no questions asked as she walked through.

Walking in, she found herself on top of an odd, stained-glass platform. The picture seemed to be of herself, and her life at Azure Daybreak. Many of the pictures contained Charity and Nessa having fun together.

What was even more strange was who were standing around her. There was a boy with honey blond hair that spiked up similar to Sora's, and electric blue eyes. He was wearing mainly black and white clothing, but there were small hints of color. Another person standing around her was a girl with medium-length blonde hair and calm blue eyes, wearing a simple white sun dress and sandals. The third was the boy that she knew to be as Anton.

"What's going on?" she asked herself, and looked down at her own self. She was wearing a black Organization cloak, and her hair was blond with brown ends; completely mirroring her real hair. If she had a mirror, she would have liked to see her eye color, but there was no such luck.

_The way to your keyhole is your Awakening._

"Awakening?" asked Charity. She looked around her. "So this is like what Sora described. It's where I really unlock my power."

_You unlock it, and learn to use it correctly._

"Yeah, that stuff." said Charity. Looking around her, she found these bodies to be completely still. They weren't even breathing.

_Which friend can you confide your secrets in?_

"What?" asked Charity. She then realized that the disembodied voice was telling her to choose one of them. "So this is like... which one is the mirror of which friend." she told herself. Who could she trust her secrets in? Well, that was an easy one, Nessa, of course, but what about between Kairi, Sora, or Riku?

"Kairi, definitely." she decided. This was an easy one to figure out, as the blonde girl was the only girl there. She walked up to the girl in the sun dress, and touch her shoulders. As if like sand, she disappeared into the air. Charity was quite shocked.

_Which friend is the unspoken leader?_

Charity laughed. That was an easy one as well. It most definitely wasn't Anton, and she had heard from Sora that his Nobody's name was Roxas. Definitely not Anton. She walked up to the black-and-white dressed boy, and touched his shoulder. She liked this idea, of all of their Nobody's. It even meant that she was her Nobody right now. On the inside of her hood, she could see the name 'Exie' in a tag. "That's weird," she decided, "an Organization member." She couldn't even remember a time that she had her heart taken away.

_You didn't. Your Nobody was pulled out of you when you were very small. When you first met Nessa._

"Wow. Pulled out of me, huh?" Charity said. She wished a disembodied voice was around all the time to make things a little bit easier to figure out, "So why is Anton there for Riku? I don't think Riku has a Nobody."

_It's not his Nobody, but it is his polar opposite. Riku was destined to find the light in the darkness. Anton was destined to find the darkness in the light._

"No..." said Charity softly. "Anton." She decided then and there; he can't go with them to Castle Oblivion.

Suddenly, Anton began to walk away, disappearing slowly as he did so. Right before he was gone completely, he turned his head. Riku's face occupied where Anton's used to be, along with the rest of his body, as he disappeared into nothing.

"Riku!" shouted Charity.

From the platform, a set of glass stairs appeared. Questioning nothing, Charity ran up these stairs. On the way, several Dusks had attacked at her, but she only attacked a few, and left the rest to their boundaries. She found herself on another platform, and this time the center picture was of her and Riku, holding hands. Surrounding them were other members of the Order of Keys, but at the very top was an image of Nessa, or Xylia, rather, in the Organization cloak.

"Nessa." Charity said quietly, as she walked up to her. She kneeled down, and ran her hands down the cool glass of Nessa's face.

She heard the sound of glimmers behind her. Standing, she turned around, and looked. There were two doors; one white, and one black.

_Choose one._

At first, Charity thought this would be easy. She opened the white door, and a bright light spilled from it. Suddenly, her keyblade appeared in her hands. "What?" she asked. No Heartless, no Nobodies, no anything appeared, and she stared down at her keyblade. "The Savior of Balance." she said. She walked over to the other door, leaving the white one opened.

Opening the black door, a mirroring black light poured out. Charity smiled, "This is all wrong." she said. She began to push the black door by its frame, and as if in a cartoon, it faded right into the white door. A silver door lay in its place, closed tight. A keyhole appeared; the keyhole to Azure Daybreak. Smiling, she pointed the Savior of Balance at the keyhole. A light emitted, and the door swung open, out of which poured the greyest light.

_There is always a darkness in the light. There is always a light in the darkness. The never ending cycle of dawn and twilight. Find yourself in between, and you can surely save the world from complete and utter darkness._

Charity smiled as she stepped through the grey light.

xxxxx

"Yoo-hoo," Sora called. Charity woke up on top of her bed, a massive headache pounding in her skull.

"You awakened!" said Kairi, smiling.

Charity smiled, "I guess I did."

"What did you see?" asked Riku. Charity was about to tell them all about it, when she remembered what she had heard about Anton.

"You all better sit down for this." she said, making room on the bed.

After a long explanation, Riku frowned, "He's destined for darkness?"

"Down the road to Twilight." Charity said, nodding.

"He can't come to Castle Oblivion." Sora said.

"I know." Charity said, disappointed, "but he can stay here. He can be with his family; I think that's what he needs right now."

xxxxx

When they left and got to Anton's house, the talk they gave him was long, but he seemed to understand perfectly. His parents already had plans for enrolling him in a continuation school once the summer ended, his friends were all called and ecstatic, and his family was just glad to have him back.

"We should get going, then." Charity told her mother after they had made it back to their house.

"I understand," said her mom, "but I've been thinking hard. You mentioned those keychains, right? The ones that change your keyblade." She reached in her pocket, and pulled out a hand-made keychain with a heart at the end of it, "Whether or not it works on your keyblade, keep it with you and remember your dad and I. I just wish he was off of work today..." she trailed off.

Charity practically knocked her mom over in a hug, "I'm sure it will work. Thanks." she said. They said their final good-byes, and made it to the Gummi Ship, the world completely heartless-free.

"So we went for a visit and sealed a keyhole while we were at it." Sora mentioned, putting his arms behind his head as they waited for the Gummi Ship to make it back to Hollow Bastion.

"And we'll be going to Castle Oblivion tomorrow." Kairi said in an excited voice, hinted with the smallest bit of fear.

"Just wait until Yuffie hears that Anton's gone." Charity mumbled. "Well, she never liked him much, anyway. She said he was too quiet."

xxxxx

Xylia appeared back in her room again through a dark portal after visiting Leander for the second time. She hadn't even remembered anything about the boy, except she just liked being around him, and she felt as though she could tell him anything. She fell onto her bed, and thanked God for letting her have a heart.

"I think I'm in love."

**Author's Note: So, I decided to be nice and leave you all at a not-cliffhanger thingy. :D I'm sorry the Awakening's so, well, late, but my friend Kari's fanfiction reminded me of that. Speaking of which, she doesn't need the advertising because it's freaking famous, but I find it obligitory. Go to Igor Lollipop's profile, and read The Two Sided Heart and The Heart of a Nobody. They're both amazing. See you next chapter:3**


	7. Hiding With Your Eyes Shut Tightly

CHAPTER VII

Hiding With Your Eyes Shut Tightly

[NOTE

Well, here I am, chapter seven, and we're already going to Castle Oblivion! Will the series be over soon? I guess you'll have to read and find out! I am so terrible at getting people excited:D So, I haven't done a disclaimer in six chapters...

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters, although I wish I owned Riku. Eh, come on, who doesn't? D: But I do own the new Organization, Nessa, Charity, and Leander. :3**

[/NOTE

Charity stared down at her hands while they all waited for the arrival of King Mickey. She thought about his name for a long time. "Hey, have you guys ever realized that Mickey has the word 'key' in it?"

Sora and Leander looked over at her, agitated, and Charity shrugged. She looked back down at her hands. Going to Castle Oblivion meant seeing Nessa again. She wasn't sure how ecstatic she was about this; or if Xylia still wanted to kill her.

"He's here!" Kairi exclaimed, as a small mouse walked in the door. He was wearing an outfit extremely similar to the one that Sora had worn on his first journey, and he had a look with a mixture of determination and happiness on his face.

"King Mickey!" shouted Sora, and then remembered to bow. He did so slightly, but then ran up to him, "We ready to go to Castle Oblivion?"

Mickey laughed, "Hold up a second, fellas. First you need your stones." he said. He reached in his pocket and pulled out six pure white stones. "These are called Memory Charms," he said as he handed them out individually, "Never lose them, or your memories will go away just like everybody else's at the castle."

"Cool," said Charity. She stuffed her rock into her pocket.

"You're one short," Mickey stated, "Where's Anton?"

Charity frowned and looked down, "In my Awakening," she started, "the voice told me that Anton was destined for darkness. We decided it was best that he didn't come."

Mickey frowned, and shook his head. "That's just it. If he's destined for darkness, he is. There's nothing you can do that can hinder or halt that."

Charity felt doubly ashamed this time. "I'm sorry."

"It's no problem. You were lookin' out for a friend, it's what you do." Mickey said in a comforting way, "And there's nothin' we can do about it now! Let's get in the Gummi Ship!" he exclaimed, the happy face he usually wore sweeping back over him.

Charity and Riku held hands on their way into the ship. Riku's mind, however, was elsewhere. He couldn't remember Castle Oblivion all that clearly, but he remembered it nonetheless. So did Sora, and this was simply because Naminé had given them back their memories shortly after they returned to the island.

The ride to Castle Oblivion was a noisy one. The King even complimented the group on sealing Halloween Town, Hollow Bastion, The Enchanted Glade, and Azure daybreak in less than a week. It was certainly faster work than when Sora, Donald, and Goofy were alone. **Author's Note: This is, simply, assuming they slept during their journey. Sora must have needed time to reapply all that hair gel, right?**

Finally landing in a familiar field that Sora had recognized from being in the Realm of Darkness, they all noticed a split path. The second they walked up to it, it formed into one, straight path towards an odd looking castle.

'_So many... memories.'_ thought Naminé to Kairi. Kairi giggled at this. "You bet." she said back to her.

"We'll have to go through all those worlds again," Sora groaned, "Perfect."

"Don't be so sure. Because you remember being there once already thanks to Naminé, all of the floors are shaped in the right way for you to get up." Mickey said, clenching his keyblade.

Sora smiled, "So this is gonna be a breeze!" he smiled.

Charity's grip on Riku's hand tightened, "I'm worried about him." she mumbled.

Riku shook his head, "You and me both."

Simply the entrance into the castle had brought to them many mounds of Heartless. There weren't, however, any Nobodies.

One by one, the Order of Keys finished off the Heartless. There was one close call where Charity almost had her heart taken away, but Leander had destroyed the Heartless right before it plunged her into darkness.

"Thanks." Charity mumbled. Leander didn't take thank-yous well, so he grunted and nodded.

"I don't even remember there _being_ any Heartless when we first entered the entryway. Then again, maybe the memories Naminé gave me back are fake." Sora mumbled.

'_Hey!'_ Naminé thought. Kairi laughed. "Somehow I don't think they're fake." she responded.

The castle, on the inside, was a pure white. The walls were not very intricate, but there was a sense about the castle that told them it was. Nobody seemed to be ready to take the next floor, even though it was perfectly laid out for them.

"Why didn't we have to use cards?" asked Sora, as it just dawned upon them.

"Your Memory Charms. Your remembrance of your abilities can't be turned into cards if they're still inside your head." Mickey said.

Charity looked behind her. It was times like this that she missed Anton as she looked for a reassuring nod of agreement.

"To the next floor we go then!" Mickey said happily.

xxxxx

"I'm telling you, something feels weird but I'm just not putting my finger on it." Xylia tried to explain to Saxen as she visited him down the hallway. She was very tempted to leave him totally and go visit Roxas again; she handn't gotten the chance yet today.

"I understand that you have a heart that lets you feel, but I doubt there's anything wrong in the castle. If that were true, however, numbers III to VI and myself would take care of it, probably without the needed help of III to VI." Saxen replied to her, this time not looking.

Xylia shook her head, "Look at you. You're just a teenager. Everyone in here is just a teenager, whether you are in age or not. Why are we doing this?"

"Are you questioning my authority?" asked Saxen, his voice growing louder.

"I'm questioning the goddamn point!" Xylia said, turning around, "We're hurting people by collecting hearts. I'm not complaining about it, but we're doing it in vain. Every heart that we've collected so far proves the same; a heart that would only create a low-level Heartless."

Saxen's angry face turned into a calmer one, "You're very right. Why are we going after these people? Who we should be going after are the hearts of Somebodies that are capable of splitting into a Nobody."

"That's not what I meant—!" Xylia tried to combat.

"You've earned yourself a day of rest, I will inform the Organization. Not only will we try to collect the strongest hearts, but we will also collect the hearts of the Order of Keys!" Saxen stated.

Xylia felt her fists turn hot as they were curled in such fury. "Don't touch Leander." she mumbled to him.

"What was that?"

Whipping out her sword, Xylia sliced Saxen down the middle. Two pieces of him lay on the floor. Xylia was quite surprised; if he had been expecting an attack, she would have probably been dead quicker than she killed him.

Saxen laughed, "I wish more members of the Organization were like you." he said, as he disappeared into darkness.

Charity's sword disappeared, and her hands were shaking. This way, nobody would know about her 'idea' to get those with the strongest hearts. "I'd rather we turn innocent people into Heartless than you touch Leander."

xxxxx

"Floor twelve, boys and girls." Mickey stated.

"Wow. This is a lot easier than when I came here." Sora told himself.

"What I find strange is that there were so many Heartless in the castle." Riku said, but his voice trailed off some.

"Maybe it's a new security measure." Charity suggested. She had a knack for finding a logical solution in everything, but that was probably because she didn't like it when something didn't have an explanation.

King Mickey nodded, "That's exactly what it is. They must have thought that, because it didn't stop you, maybe messin' with memories wasn't enough." He shook his head.

"Or," came a boy's voice as a black portal appeared in front of them, "We just knew that you were here." An Organization member stepped out. He had spikey, red hair, and was obviously older than the rest of them.

"...Axel?" asked Sora, lowering his keyblade.

The man named Axel looked at the rest of them and laughed, "Glad you recognize me!" he said, smoothing his fiery hair back.

"Wait, what's going on?" asked Charity. Leander himself was quite confused.

"When I last went to go find Riku and destroy Xemnas, I met up with Axel, a member of the, at the time, organization." Sora said, smiling. "He's harmless now, but I'm confused. Axel, you... well, disappeared, didn't you?"

Axel looked up, scratching the back of his head, "Well, I'm not sure how I got back. I think it was Roxas." Leave it to Axel to be vague and not understanding.

"Roxas?" asked Sora.

"Yeah, I think he came to me while I was in the darkness. I just came back a little while ago, but..." he scratched the back of his head again, and shrugged, "I dunno."

"Do they have Roxas here?" asked King Mickey, looking up to the reasonably tall man.

"I think so." Axel said, "That's why I came here. To save him."

"You can come with us." Sora nodded.

"We could more than use your strength." said Kairi. Even she herself had a past with Axel. A short-lived one, but a past nonetheless. She seemed to put all of that behind her as she gave him a welcoming smile.

"Great!" he said, "And I'm interested in this 'new Organization'. Pfft." Axel mumbled, as his two weapons appeared in his hands. They were called Chakram, and the colors were a perfect assortment of silver and red. It didn't take much for Charity to figure out that Axel used fire as they appeared in a flurry of flames.

They all walked up, and eventually made it to floor thirteen. "Alright, fellas, here's the game plan." King Mickey whispered to the six of them. "Leander, you get numbers II and III. Sora, get IV and V. Riku, VI, VII, and VIII, I know you're able, Kairi get IX and X, Axel, get XI and XII, and Charity, go after Nessa."

"We got rid of IX." Kairi told King Mickey.

"Then Kairi, take VIII and X, and Riku, just get VI and VII." Mickey decided.

"If they're anything like the first Organization was," Axel started, looking down a couple of hallways, "They'll all be in their rooms."

"Got it." said Charity. The rooms were too far apart for comfort; as they split up, Charity found herself facing room number XIII with a look that could kill on her face. Silently, she opened the door, and closed it hard behind her. "I—!"

Nobody was there. The room was completely empty of anything that could walk. Charity sighed, "Shit!" she said. She left the room, and turned down a hallway to try and find Riku. On the way, however, she heard voices coming from a room that wasn't labeled at all. What was eerie about this door was that it was a deep crimson while the rest of the castle had some white thing going on. Before she could ask herself, she threw herself at the door and zipped inside.

There was a boy with honey hair and electric eyes chained to the wall, who looked familiar to Charity from her Awakening. "Roxas?" she asked. Sitting in front of Roxas, with a look of horror on her face, was none other than Xylia. "Nessa..." Charity's voice trailed off. She wasn't sure how Xylia was going to react to her.

"A keyblade wielder!" Roxas said, smiling.

"You." said Xylia, slightly angered. The sword that she had killed Saxen with appeared in her hands, still darker at the blade than any other part of the sword.

"Nessa, I don't want to fight," Charity started, "I'm not sure what I want to do. I want you to remember."

"I don't think I'm all that interested!" Xylia said angrily, and charged at Charity with her sword. Roxas stayed chained to the wall in disappointment.

xxxxx

"Number VII." said Riku. For some reason, he felt like he should start in descending order, and get to number VI afterwards. He whipped open the door, and was surprised at what he saw. There was a girl with Charity's face, with blond hair and dark brown ends, the polar opposite of Charity's hair. She was wearing the Organization cloak, so she was most definitely a member. But what was going on exactly?

The member jumped, but then looked at Riku and laughed. "I remember you." she stated airily, "From Hollow Bastion. You and my Somebody."

"You're..." Riku stared at her in disbelief, and then remembered his and Charity's encounter with a female member of the Organization on their way to tell Cid that the Gummi Ship needed to be repaired, "You're Charity's Nobody? How?" he asked.

"I was pulled out of her body when she was still small. It must have been a reaction from hanging around a Nobody all of her life. Xylia's 'parents' probably had the same thing happen to them." she laughed, "But I don't regret it."

Riku got in a battle stance, Way to Dawn appearing in his right hand, "You don't feel... incomplete?" he asked. It was as if he was trying to hinder his battle with her. Exie was not Charity, but she had her face, and her smile.

"I enjoy every second of feeling incomplete." Exie laughed, standing. A keyblade appeared in her hand, the exact opposite of Charity's. This was definitely the Organization member that they had met in Hollow Bastion, "Prepare to be plunged into the darkness by the hands of Destroyer of Balance!" she shouted, running towards him.

Fatal swipes of the keyblade were exchanged between the two of them. At this point, Riku had believed for sure that they were at a stalemate, but Exie fell to the floor, gasping. Surely, one more hit would send her to darkness.

"Wait." she shouted, as Riku lifted his keyblade, "Wait. The whole time we were battling, I was thinking about what you said." she admitted. "Sometimes, it's as if I do feel. I know that the girl, Charity has feelings for you because her inner thoughts are almost always the same I feel. Knowing emotions but not feeling them... does make me feel something. Incomplete." she admitted. She pushed herself upwards, breathed in heavily, and made her keyblade disappear. "I want to return to Charity's body." she told him.

Riku stared at her in slight confusion and slight understanding. His keyblade relieved him of the load, and he nodded slowly. Exie truly was every bit as beautiful as he considered Charity to be, but Exie most definitely was not the girl that he had fallen in love with.

Riku laughed slightly, "It's okay. I know what it's like to want to get inside of her."

xxxxx

"Number IV... and number V... gone." Sora said, gasping. He practically collapsed to the floor after he left number V's room. Their names had been Vox and Calix. Neither of them seemed very strong just by looking at them, but both of them were insane to battle with. Even Vox, who had the exact same abilities as Demyx had.

Kairi, on the other hand, had failed to retrieve number VIII, as she disappeared before Kairi could take the final blow she needed. She was already so exhausted from fighting Nyx and her night abilities, that she was not looking forward to facing X.

Axel, however, had taken out number XI, who was a fairly easy battle. He seemed to resemble Marluxia in every way except for his Organization member and age. His hair was also more of a magenta color, not like that mattered. It only made Axel's drive to finish him off all the stronger; he hates the color Magenta. **Author's Note: Hah. Sorry. Stupid, but I liked it.**

Leander screamed as the second Organization member he tried to kill got away. He decided it was time to give up, and looked around the top floor for a vending machine. Knowing his group's luck, he guessed that nobody else defeated any members either.

xxxxx

"I _don't remember you_!" Xylia shouted to Charity, dropping her blade. Charity's legs and stomach had deep cuts, and Xylia seemed fairly beaten up as well.

"STOP!" shouted a voice that had been silent the whole time. They both turned to Roxas, who was grimacing in, seemingly emotional, pain. "Stop it! Do you two have any idea how long you've known each other? Even you seemed to have forgotten, Charity! You've known each other five years short of your whole lives. You don't remember, Nessa, nobody expects you to remember, but I expect you to try!"

Charity walked up to Roxas, and sliced the chains of with her keyblade. It both hurt and felt good to be free of the chains. "What can we do?" asked Charity to the newly freed Roxas.

"We need Naminé." Roxas said, nodding his head slowly.

"I never said I'd agree to any of this." Xylia said, almost just for the sake of being stubborn.

"Nessa. You trust me, don't you? If you have no memories left of Charity, you've kept the memories of the talks we've had. I'm different than the rest of the Organization. I won't let you fade into the darkness. Ever." he said. As Roxas talked to Xylia, he realized that he felt almost as if he was talking to a daughter, which was technically half-true.

"I trust you." Xylia said, looking the smaller bit up at Roxas she had to.

Roxas smiled, "Great. Now where's the rest of the Order of Keys?" he asked Charity.

"They're off fighting separate Organization members." Charity told him, but then a glimmer appeared in her eye, and her mouth twisted into a grin, "And guess who you brought back from the darkness?"

xxxxx

"Dammit," Axel said to himself as he had let the other Organization member get away, "And he had my own element, too." he moped. Xipil had escaped. He met up with Kairi, Leander, and Sora. Sora had destroyed both of his members, Kairi failed to destroy only one, and Leander didn't destroy either. This meant that, as far as their knowledge, the remaining Organization members were Nyx, Xipil, Ixtli, and Xerxes.

"There's nothing you guys could do." Sora stated. "I wonder how Riku and Charity are doing."

"I'm fine," came a voice from down the white hall. Sora's face became excited, but soon worried when he saw an Organization member walking with him.

"What the hell?" asked Sora.

"She wants to return to Charity. Her Somebody." Riku dismissed the short explanation, and began to describe everything to them all. Right when the description ended, Axel and the rest found themselves in shock and disbelief as Charity walked up to them with two Nobodies at her side; Roxas and Xylia.

"Roxas!" Axel shouted, and ran up to the boy. They shared a friendly embrace, and Axel began to tell him about his fights with the two members of the Organization. Roxas, however, took a break from this conversation and walked up to Kairi.

"Naminé?" he asked. "Could you come out for a second?"

Kairi cocked her head to the left, slightly, and then realized that he wasn't talking to her. Like a ghost, a girl straight out stepped out of Kairi. This girl was a blonde with blue eyes, was wearing a white sun dress and plain sandals. Charity had recognized her from her Awakening.

"Yes, Roxas?" she asked. Her voice was different from Kairi's; it was very childish, and a bit more carefree, almost like Sora had known Kairi before they were taken from their home. She did, although, have the same face as Kairi, as Roxas did of Sora.

"Is it possible to return Nessa's memories to her?" asked Roxas to Naminé, earning the much dreaded pained smile.

"It's possible," said Naminé, relieving the group, "but it's difficult. It will take a lot of energy out of her. She has to walk with the ones that her previous self loves back down the Castle. She'll slowly regain her memories, but it will be hard on her." Naminé smiled a little bigger, "I would just give them back to her, but I don't know them."

"Charity," came a voice from within the group. Charity spun around, and met her Nobody face-to-face.

"You're the one that we met in Hollow Bastion," Charity told the girl, "What do you want?" she asked her, her face burning.

"Calm down," laughed Exie, "I just want to go back." For once, Exie had an expression as though she was pained by something. "I don't feel. At least, I didn't think I did. But I realized that all Nobodies do feel something; emptiness."

Charity's knees were shaking, "In a way," she responded, "I always felt empty, too." She held out her hand. Exie put her soft, right hand to Charity's, and disappeared into her body.

Charity, almost in tears from the moment, threw herself into Riku's arms and looked over at Xylia. "Let's all go down Castle Oblivion. Together."

**Author's Note: Aw, happy ending, right? Well, not really. I'm still going with this series. Keep in mind that there are still four Organization members out there! See you next chapter. :3**


	8. Louder now, louder now

CHAPTER VIII

Louder now, louder now.

[NOTE

Eighth chapter already. So, if you thought that the fanfiction was going to end on the seventh chapter, you are sorely mistaken. This chapter isn't much near the beginning, mainly a comic relief, but you'll see some stuff happening later. :3 Enjoy.

[/NOTE

"I admit," Charity said, as they rounded their way down to the first floor, "I feel a lot more complete now with Exie with me. Like, more than I ever did." Riku smiled down at her, and put his arm around her shoulders.

"Hey," Axel barked at King Mickey, "Where were you the whole time we were getting rid of the Organization?"

King Mickey laughed, "While you guys distracted the Organization with the attacks, I went to search around. You'd be surprised the kinds of things that I found." he said, pulling out a stack of papers, oddly put together.

"What's in there?" asked Leander, trying to look over Mickey's shoulder.

"We'll find out when we get back to Merlin's house." Mickey responded.

The second they stepped out of the door to the castle, Nessa put her hand to her heart. She could feel the thumping, and the longer she put her hand to her chest the quicker it thumped out of her excitement.

"You're a Somebody again," Roxas told her, and smiled, "your memories of your life re-awakened your heart and you became a Somebody."

"You've gotten so... annoyingly wise." Axel teased him, earning a punch in the shoulder.

"Maybe someday we'll find a Nobody with the power to grant hearts." Naminé suggested. She stopped dead in her tracks, right before the Gummi ship, and so did everyone else.

"Something wrong?" asked Kairi.

"This is as far as we should go." Roxas answered for her. Smiling at Sora, he walked up to him and disappeared into his body, and Naminé did the same.

"So they were Naminé and Roxas, the ones you mentioned I was born because of?" Nessa looked over to Leander. Leander blushed and smiled.

Nessa smiled back at him, and then looked down, "I'm still in this Organization suit." she mumbled, in a whiney voice.

Charity's smile grew, and she ran away from Riku, jumping on Nessa's back. "That's the Nessa I know!" she shouted, holding on tight to Nessa by the neck, and she laughed back at her.

"I never really left." Nessa said, winking.

"I knew you didn't." Charity reassured her. She jumped down, and they shared in a sisterly embrace.

Riku and Leander both looked over at the ones they loved. It was surprising how they seemed to be able to get along with each other fine but Riku and Leander hardly ever talked to each other. Riku smiled and shook his head.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Leander, with wide eyes.

"Nothing." he replied back. They all entered the Gummi Ship and made their way back to Hollow Bastion.

"Looks like we've got some trouble!" called Dale from the cabin.

"What's up?" asked Sora, walking into the front, but leaving the door open.

"Hollow Bastion's surrounded in darkness!" Chip replied, "It's gotta be under attack."

"Great," Sora mumbled, "and there's no way of getting back when it's shrouded."

"Wait," Mickey said, running up to the front, "What about Twilight Town? It's probably best to check on everything in there and make sure that it's alright. You might even be able to stay there while you wait for Hollow Bastion to return to view."

They stopped at Disney Castle, and Mickey was 'dropped off'.

"That's too bad," Charity said, stretching out her arms, "King Mickey knew what to do for everything. I guess we have to think for ourselves again."

Riku laughed, "That's what makes it fun, I guess."

Charity chuckled a little under her breath, and rested her head on Riku's chest. He was so warm, and she could hear his heart beating. Somehow, it made a richer noise than hers did. Was that the product of a strong heart?

Riku relaxed while Charity was in his arms, but looked over at Nessa and Leander, who were sitting and talking together with their hands laced together. "Hah. It looks like Nessa and Leander are hitting it off okay." Riku said.

Charity chuckled, "I had a feeling they would. Nessa was a bitch to him at first. That usually means she likes him."

Riku laughed, and ran his hand through Charity's hair.

Nessa laughed and looked at Leander, "They have no idea." she whispered.

Kairi, meanwhile, was sitting next to Sora, her arms folded and a stubborn look on her face.

xxxxx

A wave of excitement ran through Sora's body when he stepped out of the Gummi Ship and into the familiar town of Twilight. Not only had he visited here at least three times before, but his Nobody's excitement seemed to run through him as well.

"It's the same as ever." Sora said, smiling. Kairi smiled back at him. Naminé must have been responding to that.

"It must be pretty easy to live here," Nessa smirked, breathing in fresh air. "No Heartless, no Nobodies, well, you know, and no Organization to drag you off into some forget-me-please castle." she laughed.

"Would you just give it a rest?" came a slightly familiar voice close to where they were dropped off.

"Get out of our turf, y'know!" came a rougher voice; one of those voices that was supposed to be 'gangster' but just didn't make the cut.

"Should we even?" asked Riku, but they all found themselves practically floating towards the source of the commotion.

A group of three, two boys and one girl, were facing a group of four, with two boys, one girl, and some odd little creature in a cute outfit. "Will you stop saying y'know after ever single sentence you speak?" asked the girl without the creature in her group. Her face was turning red from anger, and her fists were clenching hard.

"This oughta be good." Nessa whispered to Charity, who nodded her head ferociously.

"Your mom, y'know?" came the tall, tan and quite ugly looking boy.

Before she could even think about what she was doing, the girl knocked him in the face, and he fell to the floor.

"Yo mama's so fat that when she was in school, she sat next to everybody!" the leader of the group with the creature seemed to combat to the other group of kids, whose names were Pence, Olette, and Hayner.

"Yo mama's so ugly that when she was delivered, the doctor slapped her mom! Then he took another look and slapped her dad!" Pence combated with. Hayner seemed utterly shocked as he stared at Pence in disbelief.

"Yo mama's so hairy, you almost died of rugburn at birth!"

"Yo mama's so old that when I told her to act her age, she died!"

"Yo mama's so clumsy, she got tangled up in a cordless phone!" Seifer, the leader of the other gang shouted back to them.

'_Is this what it's come down to since I left?'_ asked Roxas to Sora, _'Yo mama jokes?'_

"Oh my God, if I have to hear one more joke like this, I think I'm gonna scream!" Charity bursted out, and walked out in front of them. Both of the groups seemed utterly surprised that somebody had been watching. She walked up to Seifer, "First of all, you're not gangster. Stop trying to be. Second of all, stop making Yo Mama jokes when your dad's what's _really_ a joke here."

Seifer's lips began to tremble as he searched in his mind for a good reply. Nessa, on the other hand, was watching from afar and laughing her head off. Even Sora, Kairi, Leander, and Riku couldn't help but to laugh slightly.

"Bravo, bravo, seriously," Sora said, walking out into the open with Kairi at his side, and he looked over at Hayner, Pence, and Olette.

"Sora!" shouted Hayner.

"Kairi!" Pence said, at almost the same time. Olette was still burning out of anger, but she cooled down a little bit while she saw Sora walking up to them, and soon after three more unfamiliar faces.

"Hey, I have a question," said Sora, "Have you seen any guys in black cloaks around here?" he asked them.

Olette laughed, despite her anger, "Not recently." It had only been a year, but the group had grown so much. Hayner's hair was growing a little bit, Olette was looking more like a woman and less like a girl all the time, and Pence was finally growing out of his... er... baby fat.

"Who are you guys?" asked Hayner, looking at Charity, Leander, Nessa, and Riku.

They introduced themselves one by one.

"Leander." Charity said.

"Nessa." replied Riku.

"Riku." said Nessa.

"Charity." said Leander.

Much to their surprise, the rest of them laughed. "Friends of Sora, and funny." Hayner had said, smiling, "Here, come to the Usual Spot with us."

They all made their way there, and realized for the first time that it was getting dark outside.

"So why were you fighting with Seifer's gang?" asked Sora, who, as if out of impulse, had sat where Roxas did in the alternate Twilight Town. In the real one, it seemed to be just an extra chair in case they brought anyone else inside. Kairi sat on his lap, Charity and Riku on the ground, and Nessa and Leander stood.

"We walked into the square where they always hang out. God forbid." Olette mumbled, more to herself than anyone else. She was usually a very easygoing girl, but something about Seifer's gang must have finally been getting to her.

"What are you all doing back here?" asked Pence, as he grabbed them all sea-salt ice creams.

"It's a long story." said Leander, laughing.

"I like long stories." Pence replied back.

So Sora, Leander, and Riku went between each other telling them everything that had happened so far. If it wasn't dark enough outside when they made it to the Usual Spot, it was definitely dark enough now.

"That's... weird." said Pence, who was finishing off his third ice cream.

"You're going to eat everything!" Olette complained.

"I worked hard to get the munny for that huge pack." Hayner said, staring at Pence.

"Whuh?" he asked, his mouth full of ice cream.

Hayner shook his head, "Anyway, if you need a place to stay for the night, you're welcome to stay here, but we have to get home or our parents will fry us."

Charity smiled. It was times like these that she wished she had to go back to her house. She liked having boundaries, while most kids seemed to hate them. It made her life seem more real. After all of the events that had been happening, Charity couldn't be too sure what was real and what wasn't. All she was sure of was what was right. Licking her sea-salt ice cream, which she still hadn't finished off, she smiled. The Savior of Balance— it was good to always know what was right.

xxxxx

The night was dead, it had to have been at least midnight, if not one o'clock. Charity woke up, and groaned slightly. Riku's chest almost seemed to have been made for her head- she was always comfortable in it, so it couldn't have been discomfort that woke her up. She let out a little bit of a whine, and stood up, her feet heavier than the rest of her body, and her kneecaps shaking.

"It seems so weird out." Charity told herself, after leaving The Usual spot as quietly as she could. Hoping she would remember the way back, she decided to take a short walk. Maybe if she thought hard enough, she'd be able to find out what it was that woke her up.

_Traitor._

"What the—?" asked Charity, a bit louder now. She wasn't sure about what or who had said that, but she wanted whatever it was to know that she was there. Charity made her way into the square. It was so empty, and much quieter because a 'yo mama' competition wasn't ringing around and echoing throughout the town.

_You went against everything we stood for._

"What the hell?!" asked Charity, this time much louder. She knew that she wasn't just hearing things. As she looked around, she noticed a character in a black cloak, standing on a rooftop balcony, looking down at her. The character smirked, and jumped down, landing gracefully at her feet, and walking slowly towards Charity.

Charity's hands were shaking. "I'm probably dreaming," she told the Organization member, "But I want to know what the hell you're talking about first." Savior of Balance appeared in her hand, and she backed away a few paces.

"Exie, I know you're listening. Get out of there." said the woman in the cloak again.

"Wha— Exie..." Charity mumbled. That was her Nobody. Finally, it rang a bell. "No way!" said Charity, "Exie left you so she could be complete with her Somebody."

"She's going against everything the new Organization ever stood for! We were going to find a way to get our own hearts, but no, she settled for sharing one with a stupid little girl. She's my best friend... I thought I knew her."

"You are my best friend." came a voice from within Charity. This had never happened to her before, and she guessed it was Exie speaking. The blond Organization member walked out from Charity, and she once again felt the slight emptiness she had felt before Exie returned to her body.

"We were going to find hearts together. We were going to become Somebodies together! You promised me." Nyx went on, unhooding herself. She had forest green eyes, and dishwater blond hair. Her eyebrows furrowed as she stared at Exie, waiting for an explanation.

"Nobodies can't become Somebodies." Exie said, walking up to Nyx to look her in the face. Exie didn't seem afraid of Nyx in the slightest.

"But Xylia..."

"Nessa was born with the heart of her could-have-been Somebody. It's not her own, but it is a heart, and it's making her both a Nobody and a Somebody." Exie said, looking down, "It's not the same. It's the kind of perfect inbetween that neither a Nobody nor a Somebody could achieve."

"Don't talk like that!" shouted Nyx, her two midnight black daggers materializing in her hands.

"I'll be with you. I know her weaknesses." Exie said quietly to Charity, as she disappeared back into her body. Before she knew it, Charity found herself holding both the Savior of Balance and the Destroyer of Balance. She felt as if she had twice the power, and she felt as if she had known Nyx her whole life. She was perfectly comfortable fighting her.

"Midnight black, swallow she who thinks that balance can exist in this world!" Nyx, more or less, shouted out. If this didn't create a commotion, Charity didn't know what would. Darkness seemed to pour out from the blades, making everything around Charity pitch black.

Charity could hardly avoid Nyx's stabs of her blades; it made sense that she could see through the black because she was the Nobody of Night.

"Light!" shouted Charity. A small beam appeared, and it hardly seemed to be enough. What was the strongest form of fire? Firaga? "Lightaga!" Charity commanded, being sliced slightly by her stomach. As she bled, she tried not to fall to the floor.

The light mixed with the darkness that Nyx had created around them created a dawn or twilight-like scenery. Nyx was strong, but Charity could avoid her.

Things finally began to even out as Charity got a hang of using two Keyblades.

xxxxx

A boy who couldn't be any older than sixteen looked down at the new creation he found himself holding. It looked like a giant key, and he would have been convinced that it was one, had it not been for its intricate yellow and white design on it. It must have meant something more. Maybe it was his defense against these strange creatures that were attacking him. He smoothed back his short, black hair, and his dark eyes glimmered under the moonlight.

Destroying the creatures that had shown up on the floor of his room, he jumped to look outside of his window.

Everything seemed entirely normal, except over by the square. It was as if, in different gradients, both light and dark were emitting from the ground.

"How weird." he said, still gasping from the fear he was feeling.

"Yes, it is." came a voice from behind him. He swung around, and saw a boy his height, with strawberry blonde hair that was flattened at the front, but messy in the back. Anton smirked at him, and held out his keyblade. "I have one, too. Come with me."

xxxxx

"It's no use." Charity gasped, as she avoided another blow from Nyx, and managed to just knock her in the side of her head with the Destroyer of Balance.

"Fucking stalemate," Nyx mumbled, she could feel herself on the verge to darkness. She knew, however, that Charity felt herself on the verge of death.

"Gravira!" Charity shouted suddenly, both keyblades pointed at Nyx. From one, a pure white ball of gravity appeared, and through the other, a dark black one. Together, they shone a bright silver. It reminded Charity perfectly of the door that she had walked through in her Awakening.

"Exie..." Nyx mumbled, as she disappeared into the darkness. The light and dark that was shining around the square, ridding it of the dawn/twilight setting. Footsteps were obvious as someone ran up to Charity, but stopped behind her.

"Looks like you handled that fine." came a comforting voice from behind her. Charity smiled, and closed her eyes. She let herself fall back into Riku's arms. "Mostly." he finished.

Charity laughed slightly, "Let's go back."

"First," said Riku, picking up Charity by the back and legs, "You have to tell me what happened along the way."

Charity smiled, "I woke up because I felt something strange, but not because your chest was uncomfortable..."

xxxxx

"So I'm a keyblade wielder." the boy finally came to terms with. He was sitting on a bench in a town called Traverse, next to the boy he had met named Anton. Anton nodded. He was very surprised that they didn't recruit this boy to help destroy the new Organization; he was a fast learner.

"That you are." he said.

"Why are you helping me with all this?" he asked Anton.

"Odol, you're just like I am. You're destined down the Road to Twilight." Anton told him. "The road from the light into the darkness. We can help each other down the road."

Odol smiled a cute smile, "What does getting into darkness do for us?" he asked Anton with wide eyes.

"That's why you're coming with me," he mumbled, looking upwards, "I'm not sure."

xxxxx

"It's too bad you couldn't stay a while longer." said Olette.

"Now that we know that the Organization is still out there, if only just three members, we really should go out and find them." Kairi told them apologetically.

"We'll probably be back." said Sora, "I don't ever remember not having to return to a world twice, anyway."

Hayner smiled, "It's nice to call you an old friend instead of someone that reminds me of an old friend."

Before he knew it, Sora smiled as well.

"See you soon, then!" Pence said, as they all said their final good-byes, making their way to the Gummi ship.

Chip and Dale stood there happily, ready to go back up to see if Hollow Bastion was back on the radar.

A tear appeared in Sora's eyes. _**'Stop it, Roxas. I look like a pussy.'**_

Kairi fell asleep in Sora's lap, as they found themselves lifting back out of the atmosphere.

**Author's Note: Have you ever wondered why Chip and Dale just stay in the Gummi ship all the time in my fanfiction? Me too. Anyway, I'll be sure to update soon, just keep reading! 'Till next chapter.**


	9. I'm Jaded Now, Whatever that Means

CHAPTER IX

I'm Jaded Now, Whatever That Means

[NOTE

Okay, things might get a little bit confusing this chapter, so I strongly suggest reading carefully. I hope you like it though, because I'm doing it totally as I go along. :3 Oh, and as a disclaimer, I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters, I don't own Vulnerable by Secondhand Serenade, and I don't own Casper. [You'll find out why, later.

[/NOTE

Riku waited outside of where Charity was getting dressed in Hollow Bastion. It turned out that the radar had just been broken as a few heartless had tried to invade the place again. Riku was less waiting for her to get changed, but listening to her sing to herself. She tended to do that. It got on the rest of the group's nerves sometimes, but Riku didn't seem to mind it.

"_Share with me the blankets that you're wrapped in, 'cause it's cold outside, it's cold outside. Share with me the secrets that you've kept in, 'cause it's cold inside, it's cold inside._" Charity sang softly to herself.

Riku laughed, leaning against the wall next to the door. The lyrics seemed to fit her personality well; needy, but for good reasons.

"_Your slow, shaking fingertips show that you're scared like me, so let's pretend we're alone. And I know you may be scared, and I know we're unprepared, but I don't care._" This song really was pretty.

"Hey, Riku, get down here! King Mickey sent over copies of the stuff he found!" shouted Sora.

"Okay," Riku said sharply, intent on hearing the rest.

"_Tell me, tell me, what makes you think that you are invincible? I can see it in your eyes that you're so sure. Please don't tell me that I'm the only one that's vulnerable._" Riku's eyes widened at this. He wanted no more to rush into the room, but realized this might be a very rude invasion of privacy. He waited for his girlfriend outside of the room until she left.

As Charity stepped out, she had the same happy face on, as if nothing had changed, but it had; Charity's hair was a different color.

It was still brown, but it was a kind of redwood auburn, just deeper and richer than her own. As a result, her bleached ends were gone as well. "I love it," Riku said quietly, not knowing what else to say to her.

"After the Exie thing, I thought it was time for a change." Charity admitted, smiling. Riku dipped down and kissed her lightly on the lips. "What was that for?" she laughed out slightly. She had never acted so girly towards anybody but him.

"You looked cute." he said. This was definitely unlike Riku, but Charity wasn't complaining.

"Did I interrupt something? I didn't? Great, now GET OUT HERE!" Sora said, losing his temper.

"I guess everyone's out-of-character today." mumbled Charity.

"Hm?" asked Riku.

"Nothing." she smiled. They both walked out into the main room, where Kairi, Sora, Leander, and Nessa were looking through some of Saxen's papers. Axel, however, was behind Merlin's house, burning old paper just for the hell of it.

"Look at this," said Kairi, passing one report to Riku. Over his shoulder, Charity read along with him.

_We finally were able to dispose of our Number I, but it was a hard task. We kept him locked up in a room until we may need his assistance for anything. I, of course, have become the new Superior, and my first suggestion was to stop the newly forming Order of the Keys. At the same time, there has been talk of a recipe for a heart at Halloween Town. I am still deciding between which member to send down there. One world that I informed them never to forget about, no matter if most of us are sent back into the darkness, is Pride Lands, where free hearts roam. If most of us also were to be killed off, I told them to find a new place to start and rebuild the Organization, as long as we don't lose Roxas._

"A little too late for that one." said Charity.

"Pride Lands." Riku told everybody, "We have to go to Pride Lands next."

"Or," Kairi suggested, "Half of us should go to Pride Lands while the other half starts on the look for the new Organization... 'recruitment' center."

"That shouldn't be too hard," Cid said, scratching the back of his head while he looked on the computer screen, "It looks like there's a new world on the radar. But I could use a few of you to stay behind and help me figure this out. It's givin' off a weird signal."

"I'll stay behind." Leander said. Nessa decided to as well.

"Me too. I'd probably be a better help here." said Kairi, shaking her head.

"Okay, Riku, Charity and I will go." Sora decided. They made their way to the Gummi Ship, and left for Pride Lands.

xxxxx

"So where's the Road to Twilight?" Odol asked Anton as they appeared in Pride Lands.

"It's not a real place. It's a state of mind." Anton replied to him.

"How do we get there?" asked Odol.

"You sure are talkative." Anton just didn't want to reply to Odol because he wasn't sure himself. His sole idea was that the way to start their journey on the Road to Twilight was to find Kingdom Hearts.

Odol sighed. "So what world's this?"

"Pride Lands," Anton replied, "Or, Pride Land. I'm not all that sure."

"That would explain why we're lions." Odol decided. Despite his human form being white, as a lion, he was no bigger than Simba was when he was a cub, and was covered in short and spikey midnight-black fur. His eyes glew a bright yellow, and he carried his keyblade in his mouth.

Anton, on the other hand, was a little bit larger, and a mixture of co-dominant red and yellow fur, and deep, brown eyes. "I think we can find Kingdom Hearts somewhere in these worlds." he had decided aloud.

Odol had come to look up to Anton, and he nodded with pride in his face. As they heard a zooming noise, they instinctively took off.

xxxxx

The Gummi ship landed dangerously close to the Pride Rock, but Sora, Riku, and Charity had gotten out perfectly fine. Sora was his usual odd-looking brown-furred lion, but Riku was a slightly more slender and taller, pure white one. Charity was a mixure of dirt brown and auburn colored, and her dark brown irises almost covered up both of her eyes.

"Now we just have to find the Org—...?" Riku started, but was interrupted by the complaining of a female voice inside pride rock. Following their usual tactic of 'go towards the trouble', they all jumped up the different levels of Pride Rock until they made it to the top.

"You can't see him anymore! He's not one of us!" came a growling voice.

"Leave me alone!" spat another voice, and a female lion darted out of the hole in the wall.

"Nala?" asked Sora, cocking his head sideways.

"Nala?" mirrored the lioness, "That's my mother." she complained. Now that Sora looked at her, he could definitely see differences. This lion had more orange fur, and a different face shape. Besides that, he wasn't very good at telling lions apart.

"I'm sorry," said Sora, "My name's Sora, this is Riku, and this is Charity."

The lioness raised an eyebrow, "What weird names. Mine's Kiara." she told him, nodding. "I'm sorry about the noise in there. It's... complicated."

"What's going on?" asked Charity, walking up to her. Sora now realized how similar he was in size to a teenage lion, as he was a teenager himself. He was no longer a little lion cub when he visited the Pride Lands, but a mid-sized lion, with a mane growing and a roar developing.

"There's this lion that lives outside of the pride lands. His name is Kovu, and my father won't take me to see him, but I have to because I have to warn him about the Heartless. They're the same kind that my dad warned me about and he won't even let me warn them!" Kiara complained.

"Then don't listen to him," said Charity simply, "if that's putting a friend of yours in danger, you owe it to him to tell him."

"It's because my father doesn't trust that I'll make it back safely if I go on my own." she murmured. "He's not even too sure about letting me go out to hunt on my own."

"We'll go with you." Riku suggested.

"Yeah, that's it!" Sora said, "We'll even be able to fight the Heartless for you on the way."

Kiara's eyes widened. "Really? You'd do that?"

"Sure thing." Charity said, smiling. **Author's Note: NOTICE: Kiara Joined Your Party. XD Sorry. The video game just popped into my head.**

As they made their way down to where the other pride lay, Sora found himself more worried because he had never actually went past the boundaries of the Pride Lands in this world.

"It's down this way," Kiara mentioned, pointing her nose towards a small path, as Riku and Charity struggled to learn how to fight with their keyblades in their mouths.

"Kovu!" Kiara called, as she looked past the trail and to a lion. He was just barely bigger than her, and had dark, brown fur with an even darker mane. He had almost a bad-boy look to him, but it was more laid back and uncaring.

"Kiara," he said as smoothly as he could manage, walking up to her.

"I have to warn you about something," Kiara said, "There are these dark creatures called the Heartle—"

"I know," Kovu explained, "My sister's talking to a man in a black coat right now, who seemed to bring up the names 'Heartless' a few times around.

"What?!" asked Charity.

Riku growled, "How could you be so laid-back about that?! That Organization member just might want to kill you!"

Kovu raised an eyebrow, and looked at Kiara, "It doesn't matter because I've joined Kiara's pride."

Kiara smiled slightly at this, "But that doesn't matter because different pride or not, they're still lions and they still deserve a right to live." Kiara tried to explain to Kovu. Without asking, she rushed inside of the cave that had been set up in which Kovu's original Pride had resided.

"Kiara!" Kovu exclaimed in worry, "You three, Fatso, Stinkie, Stretch, get in here!" he shouted, running into the cave. **Author's Note: I told you I'd make a Casper reference! No insult towards any one of them being fat intended, I'm sure.**

A bit insulted, the three of them rushed in. Taking the place of a standing man was a large lion, covered in a black cloak, with a large broadsword in his mouth.

"I told you, Scar's dead!" came a lioness, arguing heatedly with the Organization member. She had yellowish fur, but on her head it came up as if in a hair style, and a few spots of her fur were darker than others.

"Vitani, don't talk to him!" Kovu called.

The lioness Vitani's eyes widened before they narrowed in on Kovu, "Well, well, well, if it isn't the traitor. How could you come back after you killed your own brother?" she hissed at him. She looked back at the three unfamiliar lions and the one familiar one.

"Just trust him!" Kiara jumped in, "He can control the Heartless."

"After he killed Nuka? How am I supposed to be so sure he's just not trying to kill of the rest of us?" she asked.

"I don't know how you're supposed to be sure, but you just have to trust us." Sora chimed in.

"Shut it, you!" she snapped at him. Sora raised a paw in mock surrender and backed up a little bit.

The Organization member finally chuckled, and pointed his sword at the rest of them. Tens of Heartless appeared aby them, and Vitani suddenly felt stupid. Quickly slicing off as many Heartless as they could, Sora, Riku, and Charity left Kovu, Kiara, and Vitani to attack the Organization member. Even after they had destroyed the bulk of the Heartless, it still seemed as though they needed help.

"Firaga!" Sora mumbled through his keyblade-full mouth as he pointed it at the Organization member. Kovu, Kiara, and Vitani stared at him in disbelief.

The Organization member, however, was unhooded. Silvery blue fur covered the body of this one, accompanied by a bright orange mane and even brighter eyes. Judging by the appearance of this one and his picture profile in the stack of papers Mickey sent them, this had to be number XII, Xipil. He had both the powers of ice and fire, which Sora discovered shortly after Xipil quickly recovered and charged at them.

"Aeraga!" came a muffled voice from outside of the cave. As the group was covered in protective air, Sora looked behind them. He could see two silhouettes of lions; one slightly bigger than the other, but nothing more than silhouettes. All he could see was that they were holding keyblades. They rushed off before Sora could say anything, and nobody in the group was afraid now to fight because they were protected so well.

xxxxx

"So, you got rid of Xipil and locked up Pride Lands. G'job." Cid said, flashing them the thumbs-up.

"We got rid of him as in he escaped. We didn't really get rid of him." Charity said, not wanting Sora or Riku to try to break the news to him.

"But that's good," said Kairi, "Saxen had made that a priority, and you just ruled that out. Now the Pride Lands are safe, and the three remaining Organization members have been pushed out of another location. If we could keep this up, even without getting rid of them, the only place they'll have left is their new hideout where we can destroy them in there."

Sora nodded, "You know what, that's a really good idea."

"Thank you," Kairi said, flipping her short hair slightly. It was easier back when it was grown, but it was so disgustingly thin and just didn't look right on her, so she cut it back to the length that it used to be long before the trip began.

"Now what do we have to worry about?" asked Riku.

Charity let her head clunk onto Riku's shoulder, "Right now, I just wanna rest."

Riku laughed out of sympathy, "I don't think I ever want to run around as a lion again."

"We've still got nothin' on the new Organization hideout." Cid complained.

"But we're getting there," Nessa urged, "we're thinking it will be a world similar to End of the World and The World that Never Was; some kind of conglomeration of memories, no doubt, knowing the Organization." It was times like these that she wished she had asked more questions during her stay at Castle Oblivion. Then again, she couldn't have cared all that much.

"What's eating you?" asked Leander, who flopped onto the couch and turned on the television. Sora sat on the other couch, and sighed.

"When we were fighting, I saw two other keyblade wielders. Or rather, I saw their outlines. I didn't get to actually see who they were."

Leander laughed, "That wouldn't be too easy anyway, what with them being felines."

"Well, I don't know about that," Sora argued, "we were able to tell that Xipil was himself based on his lion form."

"Yeah," Leander gave in, "but who has silver blue hair and bright orange eyes, really?"

xxxxx

"This reminds me so much of when I had come here through the portal." Nessa whispered to Leander. It was late, and they were both in his room discussing their plans for the rest of their journey, and what they would do if they destroyed the Organization.

"Doesn't it?" asked Leander. He remembered all too well— that was the day they fell in love with each other unintentionally.

"Hey, Leander," Nessa said, looking up at Leander as she sat against his bed on the floor, "Have you ever been through the door to the light?" she asked.

Leander cocked his head, and laughed slightly, "No way. Sora has, though, and so has Riku. But not me."

Nessa sighed as Leander slid to the floor, and she put her head on his shoulder, "What happens when you walk through the door?"

Leander shrugged, "I'm not all that sure. I think it takes you to where your heart's supposed to be, or it rescues you from the darkness, or something. All I remember hearing was that Sora and Riku were trapped in the World that Never Was, and after reading a letter from Kairi, the Door to the Light opened, and they walked through. Somehow they ended up back home."

Nessa laughed, "And then they were dragged back here, right?" she inquired. He laughed louder this time, and put his arm around her.

"Good luck catching a break when you're the keyblade's Chosen One."

xxxxx

Charity rubbed her eyes harshly as she stumbled to get up. It was probably anywhere from five in the morning to nine, but she wasn't all that sure. Her questions were answered once Leon entered the room, who just got up.

"Hey." he said, sitting at Cid's computer.

"Hey." Charity responded back, trying not to go back to sleep.

"You nervous about finding the rest of the Organization?" he asked.

"Not all that much." Charity told him, "I know we can do it." However, Charity looked troubled, "Leon, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"How did you get that scar?" Charity questioned, ready to dodge a flying chair. To her surprise, he seemed pretty content about it.

"Got into a fight with a guy named Seifer." he decided to leave it at.

"Seifer..." mumbled Charity. "Any relation to that guy in..." her voice trailed off.

"What was that?" asked Leon.

"Nothing." Charity responded, waving it off.

As if on cue, Riku woke up and stretched. He grunted a 'hello' to Squall, and suddenly seemed worried. He looked behind him, and sighed.

"Bad dream?" asked Charity.

"Not really," Riku responded, "just wanted to make sure that I didn't still have a tail." he laughed.

Charity chuckled, and kissed him on the cheek. "I'm going to go get changed. I'll be right back." she said, and walked into the familiar room that she would change from her pajamas into her clothes in. Riku, as always, waited on the other side of the door.

"_Tell me, tell me, what makes you think that you are invincible? I can see it in your eyes that you're so sure. Please don't tell me that I'm the only one that's vulnerable. Impossible._"

Riku laughed lightly. "You're not." he whispered to nobody, he whispered to everybody. "I'm vulnerable, too."

**Author's Note: Aww, sweet ending, right? Well, be warned for the next chapter. D I'm even excited to write it. Later. :3**


	10. Summertime

CHAPTER X

Summertime

(NOTE)

Wow, I've gotten pretty damn far. I think I just really like this fanfiction. Too bad nobody reads it. xD If you're one of the people that reads this, review it or something so I know it doesn't suck so bad. Dx

But, I have to warn you with this chapter, full all-out warning. Something happens that will change the fanfiction totally from here on out. Read and review. :3

(/NOTE)

"Riku." Charity asked, as they waited for the others to wake up. They had, however, been told by Cid that they probably weren't going to get anything on Organization XIII today, so Charity was in a pretty lazy mode.

"Hm?" Riku asked his girlfriend. They were both walking down the marketplace because it was so early out. They hoped that the rest of them would get up early, but until then, they had absolutely nothing to do.

"Who do you think those two keyblade wielders were? You know, the ones that Sora saw." Charity asked, putting an earbud from her mp3 player into her ear.

"I'm not sure— where did you get that?" Riku asked.

Charity smiled, "I just remembered that it was still in my jeans pocket. I never used to go anywhere without my music, but I've just been so busy with life here, that I haven't really needed." She handed him an ear bud, and Riku put it in his ear.

He could hear the rich voice of a man singing a beautiful, yet hopeful song. "_You come over unannounced, silence broken by your voice in the dark. I need you here tonight, just like the ocean needs the waves._"

"You really like music, huh?" asked Riku.

Charity smiled, and stared up at the newly risen sun, the golden in her eyes sparkling like the actual metal, "Music used to be everything to me. I always felt different, and nobody seemed to understand me. I found a refuge through music. Like, a way home. But somehow..." she looked down, and then back at Riku, "now it feels like my way home is through you."

A small amount of blood rushed to Riku's cheeks; he wasn't much used to the sensation of blushing, as the only person that ever made that happen was Charity. "I—"

Riku was interrupted by a small voice coming from behind them. "Charity! Riku!" Kairi called as she ran up to them.

"Kairi," Riku said, "what happened?"

"Disney Castle's under attack."

xxxxx

"Do you think Kingdom Hearts would be there?" asked Odol, as they flew in a small Gummi ship, nearing an unfamiliar world.

"Somehow I think so." Anton admitted. "We're going to a castle after all, and it's called Kingdom Hearts. But maybe that's just what they want us to think..." Anton muttered off as he began to reconsider.

"Hmph." Odol said, as he rested his head on his hands and looked out the window to the ship.

"You can't even play car games in this thing."

xxxxx

"Here we are, guys, Disney Castle." Sora sighed, as they landed shakily by the garden of a large, beautiful castle. Chip and Dale were taking a day off, so Sora was left to drive the Gummi ship, much to Cid's dismay.

"Where to first?" asked Kairi.

"We should probably visit the King and the Queen and find out what's wrong." Sora said. Riku nodded, and they were on their way to do so.

"Fellas," came a familiar voice. Behind them, they saw the King. He didn't have his usual, determined face on, nor did he have a happy one. It seemed to be filled with shame, anger, and deep sadness all rolled into one.

"King Mickey," Sora said, doing a quick bow, "What's going on? Where's Queen Minnie?"

"That's what's goin' on," Mickey went on, softer than ever, "The Queen's been kidnaped. If I'm right, I think she's been taken over to The World's Creation."

"The World's Creation?" Kairi, Sora, and Riku almost said in complete unison. Nessa and Charity, however, shrugged this off.

"Anything to do with the End of the World or The World that Never Was?" asked Sora.

"It's some place close," said Mickey, "It's a world based on complete memories, because personal thoughts of the individual is how one can create their own world. It's complicated, definitely too risky to try. I need you all to go rescue Queen Minnie, and get rid of the rest of the Organization." King Mickey almost pleaded.

"Of course." Kairi smiled.

They soon all found themselves back at the Gummi Ship, and heading for where the radar could tell them The World's Creation was.

xxxxx

Meanwhile, another gummi ship crash-landed right next to the garden, right on top of Mickey.

**Author's Note: I'm just kidding. Calm down.**

Meanwhile, another gummi ship crash-landed right next to the garden, and Mickey was so taken aback by this, that his keyblade had appeared in his hands.

The two mysterious keyblade weilders walked out, and Mickey's grip on his keyblade tightened, "Hey, just who are ya?" he asked. Getting no response, he asked another question. "Why are ya here?"

The taller one of the two was the first to speak. "Kingdom Hearts."

xxxxx

"Here," said Sora, finally detecting the world. They were very close to it, but Sora had to navigate his way through so much crap, that by the end he was seriously ready to just crash onto the ground.

"This is so..." Kairi started, as they stepped out of the Gummi Ship.

"...Beautiful." Charity finished. The world was simply the solid sky they were standing on, with a gorgeous fading gradient of yellow to orange, like the sunset. Stray colors of the rainbow speckled where they needed to be, making the scenery all that better.

"Don't be too sure." Leander said, looking around. "If this is is anything like End of the World was, you'll be sent through different worlds at any time."

"We'll probably be sent through our memories." Sora decided. "Here goes nothing." He was the first to walk farther ahead, and then he looked at himself, and back at the group, who still hadn't moved. "Nothing to worry about!" he said. Two seconds later, he disappeared like sand in the wind of a sandstorm.

_Sora ran up to Kairi, who was waiting on the edge of what seemed to be a sandy patch of ground. "Kairi!" he called to her._

"_Sora!" she called back. She ran up to him, but the floor beneath her shook. Before she knew it, she fell into Sora's hand. The ground beneath them was splitting, and Sora and Kairi's hands were joined._

_Sora recognized this memory all too well. It was as if he was standing next to himself and Kairi as this all happened. Had it been two years already? It felt like yesterday. He himself had hardly changed at all, and every change Kairi seemed to have made, she changed back when Sora and Riku returned to the islands._

"_Kairi!" started Sora as the floor beneath them moved farther apart, "Remember what you said before? I'm always with you too. I'll come back to you," he paused, as Kairi's foot slipped slightly, "I promise!"_

_Kairi could hold on no longer, but she didn't want to stop looking at Sora's face. "I know you will!" Their hands unlatched, and Kairi was sent into the blissful oblivion of the way to Destiny Islands._

Sora woke up from this, at the end of what seemed to be the beautiful scenery, and the start of a room with the portal at the end of it. He decided that it was best if he waited around for everyone else before he went off on his own, lest he wanted to be killed.

_Riku sat in a familiar scenery, almost like Destiny Islands, but not quite. He was sitting down with Sora, who was reading a letter from Kairi. "Thinking of you, wherever you are." Sora read the rest silently, but Riku somehow knew exactly what he was feeling. He wanted to return to Kairi, he wanted to embrace her again. This was hard on Riku; he had been friends with Sora since they were small. The simple thought of Sora growing up and loving Kairi as much as he did was confusing to Riku._

_Maybe one day Riku would feel that way. But wait—_

Riku rubbed his eyes free of whatever had stayed there, so he could see. Sora reached out a hand in front of him, "We just have to wait for Leander, Nessa, Kairi, and Charity."

One by one, the rest of them had appeared on the other end of the scenery. All of them but Charity, anyway.

_Charity and Nessa had just left from the detention area from Charity skipping classes. "You waited here for me?" asked Charity to Nessa as they exited the school. "Stupid question, I know."_

_Nessa laughed softly back at her, "No, no, no," she responded, "You see, my English class was right next to the detention office, and since detention took place during your eighth hour class, you know..."_

_Charity laughed along with Nessa, and jumped on her back. This memory was more than familiar, but she couldn't comprehend Charity's last words as it faded into a different memory. Riku and Charity were sitting in the main room of Hollow Bastion. Charity seemed to be holding a cute argument with him._

"_So are you," she had stated, but Charity couldn't remember to what, "I don't know. I guess I just find like I'm most comfortable talking to you. Almost as comfortable as I was talking to Nessa." Charity looked down at this. Still, she wasn't and never would be more comfortable with anyone but Nessa; she was like her sister._

_Riku gave a cute, lopsided smile, "Really?" he asked her._

_Charity nodded, "I'm still so worried about her."_

"Go get her!" Charity woke up, shouting. She was in a cold sweat, and had no idea where she was. Things calmed down a little bit when she saw Riku's face looking down at her, and Kairi holding a hand out to help her out. Taking it, she regained her balance and coughed. "Where are we?"

"I dunno," said Sora, "We're gonna find out, though." he said.

They kept going forward, "Do you have any idea what the point of that was?" Nessa asked Sora, because he seemed like he would know the most out of all of them.

"Um..." Sora's voice trailed off, "Maybe we have to remember the memories they showed us for something later."

Nessa laughed, "Maybe it'll be like those magazine games where you're given two pictures and you have to find the differences." She quickly hit away a Heartless; much to the group's pleasure, they weren't very abundant there.

"Actually, that's a pretty good idea, now that I think about it." mentioned the silver-haired boy to the rest of the group.

"What do you mean?" asked Leander. He obviously was just a few watts short of a light bulb that day.

"I mean, maybe we'll be presented with our memories again and we'll have to find out what's wrong with them, almost like comparing two pictures together." It seemed as though Riku knew very well what he was talking about.

"That'll be easy, my memory was just us playing on the island together," Kairi told Sora and Riku.

"Let's hope that's it," Nessa mumbled, "because I'm really not ready for anything else they throw at us."

Out of nowhere, walls dropped down in a square along the area in the long hallway that they were walking, encasing them in an empty room. The once blue walls and floor quickly changed a pearly white, and a rose design appeared on the walls.

"Castle Oblivion." Nessa and Sora both said as if on cue. The keyblades were all out and ready to attack; the Kingdom Key, Way to Dawn, Destiny Blade, Savior and Destroyer of Balance (Charity was very surprised that the Destroyer had come back), and Rising Sun. Nessa readied her carved sword in response to this.

Much to their surprise, flocks of Nobodies were engulfing the 'room', very different from the Heartless that the new Organization had originally put up as a defense system from intruders entering Castle Oblivion. Shortly after the Nobodies, Heartless had swarmed too.

"There are too many!" Nessa complained, although destroying as many as she could. Riku and Charity were fighting side-by-side, the two of them being attacked the most out of the group.

Suddenly, a Heartless jumped on Charity's face, and she could see a thing. "Get off of me!" shouted Charity, swiping around at her face, uncaring that she might hit herself in the process. As she finally got the Heartless out, she was twenty feet away from Riku, and his back was open. A shadow appeared behind him. "Riku! No!" she shouted.

It was too late. The Shadow had dug into his back, and Riku fell to his knees. He was sweating, and gasping for breath. The boy's eyes were wide open, and his pupils missing, as if his eyes were devoid of any and all light. The multiple calls out to him from Charity were the only things he could hear. As he fell forward in blissful darkness, Charity rushed up to him, and he fell in her arms.

"Riku!" she called again.

Riku's body disappeared, as did his heart.

"Riku! No, Riku! No..." Charity kept calling. She sat where Riku disappeared, her face in her hands, crying like a baby. Everything around her was silent. The Heartless clashing with keyblades and a sword made no difference to her. It didn't matter if a Heartless came up behind her and ripped her heart out that very second; it already had been.

"Char!" came Nessa's unheard scream, abandoning the Nobodies that she was fighting to go run next to Charity. Charity couldn't hear her; everything was silent. She couldn't see her because her eyes were swimming with tears. All she knew was that her best friend's presence was close; she threw herself onto Nessa's shoulders, and tried to speak, but she couldn't.

"What's going on?" shouted Kairi from a distance.

"I don't know," Nessa replied, "We have to get back! Call Naminé out!"

Kairi nodded, and Naminé appeared out of her body. Understanding entirely, she held out a hand, creating a swirling black and purple vortex. They all stepped through, only to appear right in front of Merlin's house.

xxxxx

"Dammit!" shouted Leander, pounding his fist onto the table in which they were sitting around. Charity was no longer crying, but her face was dry with tears, and she was in an obvious shock; she wouldn't talk or look anybody in the eye. Kairi was also beginning to tear up, and Sora started to blame himself.

"It's my fault. It's my fault in the first place for dragging any of you into this. You and Riku should have stayed at the islands," the mention of Riku's name only made Kairi scrunch up her face further, and another tear fall, "You and Charity should have stayed at Azure Daybreak, and Leander should have kept working with the restoration committee. It's my fault."

Kairi stood up, and made a sweeping motion with her left hand, "No way! You wouldn't do this alone even if you wanted to!" she scolded, "We're all in this together. We have to find a way to get Riku back."

"We can't get Riku back." Leander said pessimistically as always, "This is his second time in the darkness. What makes you think that he can return to the light a second time?"

"Shut up!" Kairi said, uncharacteristically flipping the table over. "Riku was like a brother to Sora and me! And to Charity... There has to be a way! I'm not doing anything until we get Riku back!" she said. She never seemed to like to talk to Leander much, but she was not happy. She got an inch from his face, and made a face, "And neither are you. You're part of this Order, and we're not going on without Riku."

At this, Charity's eyes clouded over only the more, and her head dipped down until she looked at the floor. She seemed thankful that Kairi at least could stand up for him. Charity had only known him for three weeks at the most, but she knew for certain that she was in love with him. Love, though, was not a feeling like a childhood friendship, both of which Kairi and Sora had for Riku.

"We abandoned Queen Minnie for this," Nessa said quietly to her, now quite angry, boyfriend, "and we owe it to her to try to get Riku back. I don't think we can do it without him, anyway, because his memory was at The World's Creation."

"For now, you all need a good night's sleep." Yuffie spoke up, after being silent for the past hour, listening to the story, to the arguing, and to the crying.

"We do," Leander mumbled, "It's not like Riku's going anywhere."

"Shut up!" Kairi called back to him. She didn't think she had been so angry in her whole life, not since she had saved Sora from the darkness.

xxxxx

"So familiar." he said, trying to open his eyes. It's not like it would matter, anyway; it was so dark whether or not his eyes were closed. "I remember."

He, however, could feel himself outside of the darkness. He couldn't tell how, but he could feel it. Did he have a Nobody? It didn't matter now, nothing mattered. He was in the darkness. However he managed to escape the first time was not very likely the second. Slowly forgetting everything, Riku forgot where he came from. He forgot his name. What about the people that meant the most to him?

Sora. Kairi. Charity. They appeared before him in the darkness almost as if they were real.

Kairi, like a sister to him. He had done all he could to save her before. He remembered, when they were all building the raft. They were determined to find new worlds. After they had, all he was determined to do was find her a new heart. So many amazing memories with her, ever since they were small and she appeared on the island.

Sora, his best friend. He couldn't even remember how long he had known Sora. His memories were slowly coming back to him, though, as he looked at the faces. The island, always rivaling him in something. Sora had left him with King Mickey behind the door... he remembered the door... and what King Mickey had said... 'There will always be a way to the light'. Riku relaxed at this, and then looked over at the third face.

Charity. The one that gave him that feeling that he couldn't quite describe, like love, but stronger. They talked together constantly. She told him that he was the only one she was comfortable around when her best friend was lost to the Organization. That song he let her listen to, however long ago that was. It went something like, '_You come over unannounced, silence broken by your voice in the dark_." Riku was positive now. He was positive of all of his memories. He wouldn't lose his mind to the darkness again; his friends would be his light.

xxxxx

A boy with dark silver, medium length hair and forest green eyes sat on the shore of the World that Never Was. He knew who he was; a mirror. He was a mirror of his somebody, just as this shore was a mirror of his Somebody's home.

He could feel something fighting inside of him; his Somebody surely wasn't lost to the darkness just yet. He wasn't quitting. '_The Organization will go after you soon. You have to go._' said Riku's voice inside of the boy's head.

"I really don't care." was the boy's response, staring out into the mirror of a sunset.

'_I do, though. I won't stop fighting until I'm out of the darkness_.'

"You don't have a heart anymore," laughed the boy, "Neither of us do. It's with the Organization now, along with all of the other hearts they've collected. They've probably already destroyed that weak heart of yours..."

'_If I have a weak heart, that does nothing for you._' Riku thought back to the boy.

"You have absolutely nothing to do with me." Pointing his hand forward, he let out the darkness of a portal, and stepped through it. The slightest amount of darkness use was enough to silence Riku, for how long, the boy didn't know.

xxxxx

Charity woke up, sweating almost as much as she had been crying the day before. It was only 4 am. She looked to her left, hoping for a glimpse of reassuring silver hair. Nothing. She pulled the blanket up to her face, and tried to remember her dream. There was a boy... he almost looked like an inverted Riku. It was as if he was arguing to himself.

It dawned upon Charity. The boy had disappeared to join the Organization, much like Nessa did. The only difference was that the boy still had his Somebody living in the darkness of his body.

"He can't fight for too much longer." Charity spoke, speaking for the first time in at least twelve hours. The time didn't matter to her anymore. All that mattered was getting Riku back. The Nobody had disappeared to join the Organization... so he was in the new hideout.

Without thinking, Charity softly shook everybody in the room, and told the cranky, yet sympathetic members of the group what was on her mind.

"We left the Gummi ship over at The World's Creation," Kairi murmured, "We'll have to get Naminé to take us."

'_Already ahead of you,_' came a reassuring voice in Kairi's head. The familiar blonde girl stepped out, and smiled at the rest of them. "I know you can do it, but I want to stay out and help you fight." she said.

"Deal," Kairi smiled, nodding. Naminé created a portal in which they all stepped into, and they found themselves back in the room that they had left, and as if nothing was interrupted, the Nobodies and Heartless were stirring at their presence.

"Alright, we just have to get rid of these Heartless and Nobodies, and then we'll be able to keep going," Sora said, already attacking a few, "We'll get Riku."

"I'm sorry I couldn't take you to the new headquarters, but I don't even know where those are." Naminé apologized in her cute voice.

"There's nothing you can do about that," Nessa said as she pulled out her sword, and violently swung at a Giant Body.

Charity gripped her Savior of Balance and Destroyer of Balance, and stared out into the crowd of Heartless and Nobodies, "This is for Riku!" she exclaimed, charging at the crowd.

She could feel Exie and Nessa at her side, and she could feel Riku fighting beside her even though he was gone. For once in her life she felt stronger than anything.

**Author's Note: I told you something huge would happen:3 Definitely adds more to the plot, I think. Don't worry, this fanfiction's going on for a long time... I sometimes wish I could make a game out of it. x3 Anyway, see you next chapter.**


	11. God Damn, That Girl's a Train Wreck

CHAPTER XI

God Damn, That Girl's a Train Wreck

(NOTE)

I'm officially addicted to writing this fanfiction. Not much to say this time, just read and review! Thank you!

(/NOTE)

The walls of the room finally dropped back down, and 'tired' had officially not qualified for the right word to describe what they were feeling. As exhausted as she was, Charity still stood in a battle stance when it was over, and as her keyblade disappeared, her body finally decided to relax.

"We should rest," Leander suggested.

"Not until we find Riku," Sora combated. This seemed oddly familiar; he always seemed to be looking for Riku.

Looking around, they realized that the blue hallway they were going down was no longer a hallway, but a dark, space-like atmosphere with stepping stones ascending to the top of a high looking tower.

"Let's go." Charity said meekly. For once, everyone followed her as she jumped from stone to stone, getting higher and higher each time. With every step her body got lighter, but they soon reached a whole new level.

"That must be it," Nessa said to everybody, "There's a new level, and each one with a representation of another memory."

"How was _that _a memory?" asked Naminé, oddly confused.

"It was a representation of all of the heartless and nobodies we've battled." said Nessa, "And it was in the setting of Castle Oblivion because we all had to go there, I'm thinking."

"That's probably it," Kairi responded, "Whose memory is this?" she asked, as they stared forward on a horizon of water. They were standing atop an island that looked only too familiar to Sora and Kairi.

"Mine." Sora said, regret in his voice, as darkness began to fill up the area. A face that they hadn't seen in a while had appeared at the edge of the sand, which seemed to be broken up by crevasses.

"Xehanort's Heartless!" Kairi said.

"Too bad it isn't Riku," Sora mumbled, as Kingdom Key reappeared in his hand.

Without thinking, they all charged at the man, who seemed to have a Heartless surrounding him whenever he needed it the most.

xxxxx

"Here I am." said the boy in the black hair, who made his way to a small, strangely shaped house inside of The World's Creation.

"Who's there?" came a voice. A man with silver-blue hair and bright orange eyes stepped outside of a room. He was known as the Organization's number XII, Xipil. Apparently, Riku, who was still in the darkness of the boy's body, had remembered fighting him as a lion.

"I'm here for your hearts." said the boy, his eyes glimmering.

"The hearts we've collected? Fat chance." he said, a broadsword appearing in his left hand. The boy smiled. He could see right through him; thinking that he could take a heart that a Heartless collected and put it in his own body. He was truly the stupidest of the Organization.

"If you want to do it the hard way," the boy said smirking, he pulled out a keyblade. It was exactly the same as Anton's Way to Twilight.

"You... you have a keyblade! You're a keyblade wielder's Nobody!" he shouted, charging at the boy with his broadsword.

Easily dodging the sword, the boy swung to the left, and shoved his hand through Xipil's back, and seized the heart that he had put in.

"What—!" came Xipil, right before he was knocked to the floor by a fatal swipe of the boy's keyblade. "What kind of Nobody are you?"

The boy raised an eyebrow, "Nobody?" he asked, stabbing Xipil, who was still on the ground, with his keyblade.

"Who are you?" he asked, as his body began to disappear into the darkness.

"I am Kiur." he responded meekly, "I am Riku's Nobody, and I am Riku's heartless."

"How is that possible?" the disappearing body managed.

"I didn't let Riku free to be in the darkness, I kept him in the darkness inside of me. What makes you think I would allow him to be a Heartless? No, when I trapped Riku, I became his Nobody, I became his Heartless. I am Kiur, and I _am _Riku."

"You... fool." Xipil said, as his body finally disappeared.

Kiur walked up to the shadow remains of where Xipil had disappeared, and grimaced. A fool? What made him think that he was a fool? "And who survived?" he asked nobody, grinding his foot into the shadow burns.

xxxxx

Xehanort's heartless somehow had assumed a stronger form, in which they finally were able to destroy. "Somehow," Sora said gasping, as the room turned into the same dark the other one had, and stepping stones appeared, "I think he was actually easier this time."

"Well," Naminé started, "you've also grown since the first time you battled him."

Naminé, despite her inability to battle, was actually a very strong temporary member of the team. She could easily mess with the surroundings of The World's Creation, what with it being made up of memories.

They all made their way up the set of stepping stones again, but this time, Nessa froze; she was the only one there. "Charity? Leander?" she asked. Sighing, she stared around at the empty, white room, "I guess I'm in on this one alone." She recognized this as floor thirteen of Castle Oblivion.

"I guess I should try my room." she said. Opening the door, she saw nothing. Standing there for a minute, Nessa tried to figure out where it was she was going. "I've got it." she told herself.

Turning the corner of the hallway, she walked into Roxas's room. Surely enough, he was chained up, and before she knew it, Charity had charged at her with her Savior of Balance.

"What the hell?" asked Nessa, avoiding Charity. Even when she was fighting her because she couldn't remember anything, Charity was much more hesitant than that. "Leave it to Square to make everything a battle scene." Nessa inadvertently mumbled. She charged back at Charity, and her sword clashed with her keyblade. She rebounded off of the pressure straight onto a wall. Nessa managed to put her feet in front of her, and sprang off of the wall, only to slice at Charity with her sword. Expecting Charity to get cut, she was surprised when Charity disappeared into nothing, along with Roxas.

"What?" she asked, looking around the room. Wasn't she supposed to fight her?

Nessa's eyes widened as she noted water flooding the room slowly. "I have to go down the castle!" she shouted.

Rounding the corner, she began to run down the stairs to each level, trying her hardest to avoid the rushing flood of water chasing after her. "This never happened before!" she complained airily as she ran. As she made it to the front door, she swung it open, and closed the door. The castle disappeared in response, the castle disappeared, and so did the surroundings, back into a black space-like background with stepping stones up.

"Nessa!" called Charity, running up to her, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Nessa responded, "I'm fine. Why did I have to do that memory alone?" she asked.

"It's probably because you felt alone at the time." Naminé told her sympathetically.

"Oh." Nessa said, and left it at that. She wished she had something better to say than 'oh', but it's true that she felt very lonely.

They went up at least three more levels, belonging to Kairi, Leander, and Charity, and they were insanely tired. **Author's Note- Yes, I got lazy. I'm trying to get to the point here.**

"We should go back and rest, now." Leander told them.

"No," Kairi repeated, "Not until we find Riku." She was getting quite tired of having to tell Leander this after almost every single floor.

"How many floors left?" asked Nessa as she groggily jumped up the stepping stones to the next level. She thought quietly to herself, "Everyone's, Sora's, mine, Kairi's, Leander's, and Charity's. I think the only one we have left is Riku's memory."

xxxxx

"I'm getting sick of your complaining," Kiur warned Riku inside of him, who was constantly fighting Kiur on the inside for control of his body, "You know that whether or not you have my body, you won't be able to use it because you have no heart."

'_I have a heart,_' Riku combated, '_You obviously haven't dug far enough into my memories to figure this out. My heart's out there right now._'

Despite the look of it, these words frightened Kiur, "We'll see about that. Good luck finding your heart when you're lost in your own memories of darkness!" he cackled as he had an idea. Holding out his hands, he created a purple and black vortex. With his left hand, he reached inside his chest, only to pull out Riku's soul from him, and threw it in the vortex.

"Now, to take care of the last two Nobody's inhabiting this place." Kiur mumbled, walking farther into the house. He much enjoyed the silence.

xxxxx

Charity found herself alone in this memory. The room was dark; too dark to see anything. "I don't understand." her voice trailed off. '_This isn't my memory._' she thought, '_It's Riku's. Why am I alone here?_' She finally realized where 'here' was— it was the darkness, where Riku was lost for quite some time before discovering the Road to Dawn.

Charity found herself trying to scream for somebody, but no noise came out in her attempt. She had no idea what she was supposed to do, and after five straight minutes of running around in endless darkness, she finally gave up and sat down.

"I don't understand." she repeated, and hugged her knees to her chest. She stood up, though, determined to complete the memory.

"You and me both." came a familiar voice right behind her. Charity almost swung her head backwards, but was stopped by the voice telling her 'not to look at him.'

They stood back to back, Charity with her hand to her chest. "Riku." her voice trailed, "You're here. But it's just... the memory of you."

She could feel his head shaking slightly above hers, "No. It's me." he assured her.

A tear formed in Charity's eye, "How did you get into your memory?"

Riku chuckled, tilting his head slightly, "My Nobody got rid of me. He seems to think that he can collect enough hearts to become a Somebody."

"That's what Organization XIII thought." Charity commented. She could feel him nodding behind her. "But..." there was a strong hint of sadness in her voice, "your heart is gone. You can't come back." Two tears streamed down Charity's cheeks.

Riku looked down, "My heart never left."

Charity shook her head violently, "I saw myself, the Heartless ripping it out of your body... I hate to think about it, but... it's gone." she mumbled, trying to keep herself from crying.

Riku smiled behind her, as his hand searched for hers. He laced his fingers around hers, and a small hint of light glowed from their entwined fingers, "You never left. Kairi, Sora, and you... you're all that I am. You're my heart."

The light flooded the room before Charity's vision went black.

xxxxx

"I was waiting for you two to show up." Kiur stated to two keyblade wielders that had been transported to the house.

"I don't even know how we got here." Odol muttered, shrugging.

"I sent the portal. You two just took forever deciding to enter it." Kiur laughed, a very cold laugh.

"Who are you?" asked Anton, tightening his grip on Way to Twilight. It scared him in only the slightest to see that Kiur, as well, carried a Way to Twilight. Odol seemed almost left out, carrying around Midday Descending.

"I am Kiur." he responded shortly.

"Why did you bring us here?" asked Anton, continuing with the twenty questions.

"You're looking for a way into the darkness. I can help you there."

"What do you mean?" asked Odol, taking control of the questions.

"I'm collecting hearts to become a Somebody. I wouldn't be able to lead you into the darkness you two are destined to be in unless I was a Somebody. Help me, and I'll help you." Kiur held out his hand at Anton.

Anton was suspicious; he was slowly forgetting all that the Order of Keys had stood for, but he held out his hand, and grabbed Kiur's, shaking it.

"It's a contract."

xxxxx

"Charity? Charity, you might want to wake up now." came an all-too familiar voice. It belonged to a girl Charity knew... it was Nessa? What was she doing waking her up? Why was she even at her house? Right, she wasn't at her house anymore. She wasn't even at Hollow Bastion. She was at The World's Creation.

Charity stirred slightly.

"I think you'll be happy to see somebody." came Naminé's.

As Charity came to, her vision was still much too foggy. She blinked twice, and looked up. Everyone seemed to be huddled around her, but one person in particular.

The silver haired boy smiled down at her, and offered a hand to get up.

Charity smiled largely, and ignored the hand, jumping up at him. Riku caught her at the legs, and she threw her arms around his neck. "Riku!" she cried happily. "You're here."

This seemed all too familiar to Kairi, just like she had helped Sora out of the darkness. But this time was different; Charity hadn't been Riku's light, she and his two best friends had been his heart the whole time, because those were the only things he lived for.

"I never really left." Riku reassured her. They shared a kiss, and Naminé looked up at them, with sparkling eyes. Kairi, however, didn't take her eyes off of Sora, who was looking down, blushing furiously. Leander and Nessa had already started kissing as well.

"They're such an odd couple." Kairi made conversation to Sora about Nessa and Leander.

"Yeah," Sora mumbled, "One's a total loudmouth jerk and the other's a... well, not a total loudmouth jerk."

Kairi shrugged, "She must see something in him."

Charity smiled as she was let down, and looked up at Riku.

"What exactly happened with your Nobody-slash-Heartless thing?" asked Sora. Apparently, Riku had been in the middle of explaining this when Charity had begun to come to.

"He thinks that he can become a Somebody by collecting hearts, so he disposed of me in my own memory, positive that I wouldn't be able to return as a full being because I didn't have a heart. He was wrong." Riku smirked. This was the I'm-so-badass smirk that Charity missed. It was the same kind of first impression that she and Nessa had about him, except Charity knew the reasons that he smirked like that now.

"So is he in it with Organization XIII?" asked Kairi.

Riku laughed, "I'm pretty sure he's gotten rid of the whole Organization by now," he stopped as Charity and Nessa both looked hopeful, "but I'm not willing to say that he's working alone. He's probably got more helpers by now."

"He's not gonna start a whole new Organization..." Sora decided, "Is he?" he asked, looking around at everyone else's face.

"I wouldn't be too worried about that," Riku said, "It seems to me that Kiur isn't the kind of person to be in an Organization. The people he's got probably think that they're working wit him, but they're just working for him."

"You sure know a lot about him," Leander decided, looking at Riku oddly, "How exactly? You've only been like this for a day."

Riku shook his head, "I lived inside of him. He didn't realize it, but I know more about him than I really think he should, whether he's lacking memories or not."

"We'd better get going," Kairi suggested, as she was afraid that the next set of stepping stones would fade or something.

This time, Riku was more ready than the rest of them. He was the first all the way up the stepping stones, and the first to glance further on in their horizons. "It's the house." he told them. They were in a field scenery, and an artificial breeze blew their hair slightly, but didn't seem to shake any member of the group.

"Is this where Kiur is?" asked Charity.

"Smart girl," came a familiar voice. It was almost Riku's, but a little darker, and had a sinister twinge to it. Before Charity could say anything, she felt a cold hand on her mouth, and another gripping her arm with her keyblade, "so you were Riku's heart after all. You and the other two. Pathetic."

"Let go of her!" shouted Nessa and Riku in unison.

Kiur laughed louder now, only tightening his grip on both her mouth and arm. "I can't afford to have you back, Riku, so I think if I just... destroyed your heart..." he trailed off, his hand slipping to Charity's neck.

"Don't touch her!" Nessa shouted in a scold that reminded her sickeningly of her mother's, and charged at him with her sword. He quickly dodged this.

Without being seen, however, Charity remembered that she no longer just had Savior of Balance, but she had Destroyer of Balance as well. It appeared quickly in her left hand, and she sliced behind her, knocking Kiur out of the way.

"Nice!" Kairi shouted, flinging her Destiny Blade to hit Kiur, only slightly skimming him, but returning to her hand like a boomerang.

Sora, being male, ran up to him to try to blindly attack him. Before his keyblade could touch him, he found it clashing with the Way to Twilight. He thought at first that this was Kiur's keyblade, but he was only half right. In front of him was a familiar face with light eyes and strawberry blond hair, smirking back at him.

"Anton?" asked Sora, grimacing.

"It's always the quiet ones." Riku mumbled, running up to attack another boy that he had walked out with.

"Destined for darkness." Anton repeated, and went on a one-on-one duel with Sora.

Kairi, Charity, and Nessa, however, were taking on Kiur as Leander helped Riku fight the spikey black-haired boy.

Naminé stood on the side, trying to alter the earth in any way possible to make it harder on Kiur, Anton, or the boy.

Kiur growled, "We can't all fight like this!" he shouted. He back-flipped far away, pointed out his left hand, and created a vortex. Anton, Kiur, and the boy all jumped through, and Charity ran to go through as well. She hardly missed it as they all left.

"Damn it!" Charity said.

"Hello?" a voice called from inside the house. The group turned their heads to see who it was, and smiled brightly at the change of presence.

xxxxx

"Queen Minnie, do you have any idea why they took you?" asked Sora in the garden. They were dropping off Queen Minnie whom they had found inside the small house.

"I'm not too sure." Queen Minnie said, shaking her pretty head. King Mickey had a hand on her back, "I think I was bait to get to all of you, but the boy named Kiur had destroyed the Organization. I thought he was saving me, but he left me in there to go fight all of you."

Riku shook his head, "He's definitely not here to help anybody."

"I can't thank you enough for getting Minnie back, fellas." King Mickey said, "But I think I can help." He grabbed some small objects out of his pocket, and handed them to Sora. "Take these to a synthesizer in Hollow Bastion, and asked for the Ultima Weapon keychain."

Sora smiled, "Thank you!" he said.

"Now, you all better get back. You have a long journey ahead of you."

Charity looked up at Riku, down at Nessa, and then back at the King and Queen, "I think you're right."

xxxxx

"Riku, you're back!" Yuffie said excitedly, and Aerith walked into the main room of Merlin's house, giggling slightly.

"Why, that's amazing!" came a voice of an old man. A tall man with a long, white beard and blue robes poofed into the house, stroking his beard, "Simply astounding!"

"You don't even know what happened, Merlin." Leon said, shaking his head.

**Author's Note: Finally! Merlin appears in his own house.**

"Well, we've got a whole new journey to go through." Nessa said, in more of a whine than words of encouragement.

"We should go to Azure Daybreak tomorrow and warn our parents." Charity suggested.

"Until then, we need a good night's sleep." Kairi moaned. Naminé had joined her back in her body, and she was feeling slightly stronger, but still not as strong as she could be feeling.

"Why, that's perfect! I'll create for you your own rooms!" Merlin laughed, pointing his wand out, "Hockety pockety wockety wack, abracabra dabra nack!" he crazily chanted as he danced around slightly.

"That's... er... really not necessary..." Sora sighed, "but you're going to do it anyway, aren't you?"

Leander moved over to Nessa, and put his hand over her shoulders, "We can share a room." he told Merlin.

"Honestly?" asked Nessa, "I think you'd keep me awake all night."

Leander felt like he had been hit with an anvil, "Whaa—?!" he whined.

Charity laughed. "Sora, you still need to get that keychain, don't you?" she asked him.

Sora felt in his pocket for the ingredients nervously, "That's right!" he said.

"I swear," Riku laughed, "you'd forget your head if it wasn't attached."

"Wait... my head's not attached?" asked Sora.

Riku shook his head, "Never mind. Go get your keychain." Passing this off as nothing, Sora smiled, and rushed out the door into the market.

**Author's Note: I thought that was a good place to end it. See? This fanfiction isn't going to be over for a while. :3 See you soon. :D**


	12. We'll Speak of What a Waste I Am

PART TWO OF: A Step Into the Twilight

After the Storm Comes a Calm

CHAPTER XII:

We'll Speak of What a Waste I Am

(NOTE)

So, we're finally on part two of A Step Into the Twilight. I decided to go crazy with this chapter to open up new options and possibilities, so this may be the chapter that you decide for yourself totally if you're going to like this fanfiction, if you haven't decided that already. Read and review, and enjoy!

(/NOTE)

Two weeks had passed since the group's encounter with Kiur, Odol, and Anton, and days since, the whole group had stayed at Azure Daybreak. Charity and Nessa's parents were more than happy to see them again, and they had split up the group for whose house they were staying in.

"It's weird," Charity had mentioned as she sat on the swing in the park close by her house, "it's been weeks already and still nobody from the restoration committee can find anything on Kiur's plans, or let alone where he is."

"Ugh, don't remind me." Nessa grumbled, swinging on a swing on her stomach. "It probably just means that he's out there somewhere, planning."

Sora nodded. He was also sitting on a swing, and eating an ice cream bar. "Nessa's right. And the plan's probably really good 'cause he's been planning it for so long."

"I'd say that he was trying to make a new Organization, but that would be too unoriginal." Charity complained, as she abandoned her swing to let Leander on.

"I don't think he's striving for originality right now." Leander told her, immediately pushing himself as high up as he could go.

"Well, Leander, Kairi, and I should probably get over to my house for the night. We'll call you if we hear anything." Nessa said, taking a huge leap off of the swing. As they all walked back from the park, she muttered to herself, "To think that the last time I was on that swing I had no idea that any of this existed."

"Let's go back, too." Charity suggested to Sora and Riku.

"You think Cid'll find anything soon, Riku?" Sora looked up at the silver-haired friend of his.

Riku laughed, "I doubt it."

xxxxx

At four am, Nessa was still lying awake in her bed and staring out her window. Kairi was sleeping soundly in the cot next to her, while Leander was sleep-talking downstairs on top of the couch. The only one of Nessa's friends that her mom didn't seem to trust was Leander, and he couldn't figure out why.

"There are probably so many other worlds out there that we've never even been to." Nessa whispered to herself. "Millions. I wonder..." As she let her left hand droop over the side of her bed, she quickly yanked it back up after feeling a sharp sting from it. "'Tha hell?" asked Nessa, careful not to wake Kairi up as she bent over the edge of her bed. Nothing was there.

"Calm down, Nessa, you're just... er... feeling things." she told herself. In a failed attempt to close her eyes and go to bed, she could have sworn she saw a flash of red sprint over the end of her bed.

"Okay, that's it!" Nessa hissed in a whisper, and flashed the lights on.

"What's going on?" asked Kairi, rubbing her left eye, "It's only four o'five..." she murmured.

"There's something in here," Nessa explained, "I saw it, I know my eyes weren't just playing tricks on me, I saw it."

As if on cue, a strange, red creature jumped at Kairi. On impulse, Destiny Blade sparkled into Kairi's hand, and she knocked it out of the way. "What?!" she asked herself, questioning her own sanity. She didn't recognize it as a type of Heartless, and was pretty sure that it wasn't a Nobody.

"What are you?" asked Nessa, as the thing stayed still enough for her to get a good look at it. It looked almost exactly the same as a common old Shadow, if it hadn't been for it's bright red color and violet eyes.

"It's gotta be a Heartless." Kairi stated.

"But we sealed the keyhole here; it couldn't have gotten in on it's own." Nessa mumbled, avoiding another jump from it.

"Someone must have sent it here, and whoever did probably wants you." Kairi told her firmly, but as she dodged another jump from the strange Heartless, she sighed, "Or me. Or anyone else in the Order of Keys." They hadn't even created that name for themselves, and the ones that did had all been sent into the darkness, but they found it much easier to refer to themselves as something other than 'the keyblade wielders', considering they were everywhere.

"Trying to get us in our sleep, huh?" asked Nessa, her sword appearing in her hand. With two strikes, the Heartless disappeared. "I wonder what's with the new breed."

"Maybe that's what's special about them; they can survive in sealed worlds." Kairi said.

Nessa's eyes widened. "We have to warn the others."

xxxxx

"What _are_ these things?!" asked Charity. She was surprised at how she sounded; almost as if she was seeing a Heartless for the first time.

"It's a new breed," Sora told her, "I've never seen it before."

"Me neither." Riku said, skillfully destroying another of the red Heartless.

"How did they get in here? The world's been sealed!" Charity half screamed as she chopped at one Heartless with both the Savior and Destroyer of Balance. "We've gotta get out of here before we put my family in danger, though." she told them.

"Charity!" came Nessa's voice from the other side of the door. They rushed out, to be greeted by Nessa, Leander, and Kairi.

Charity's cell phone started to ring as they began to run away from the house, the flocks of the red Heartless still following them. Flipping it open, she panted, "Hello?"

"She carries her cellphone in her pajamas?" asked Kairi to Nessa. Nessa shrugged in response.

"No, really?" Charity asked sarcastically into the phone, "We'll be there soon." She hung it up, and looked at the rest of them, "That was Cid, he wants us back because they discovered a new breed of Heartless that can invade sealed worlds.

"Who would create something like _that_?" asked Kairi, "That definitely wasn't natural." she complained, as they made their way next to the hidden Gummi Ship.

"Who do you think?" a voice pierced next to them. Flipping around, Anton stood there, grinning.

"What are these things?" asked Sora to Anton, without bothering to ask what he was doing there.

"They're Red Shadows, Kiur's been working on them for the past two weeks," he stated, walking up to them as casually as he could, "They're pretty great. They can enter sealed worlds, and they're a lot more... picky with the hearts they collect. That is to say, if the heart isn't strong enough, they crush it on the spot."

Nessa growled slightly, but then let her eyes open slightly. "Wait... Anton. My cousin?" she asked, and looked over at Charity, who nodded in response.

"He helped us for a little while when you were gone, but when we learned that he was destined for the Road to Twilight—..."

"You dumped me off here to live a normal life, right?" he asked, Way to Twilight appearing in his left hand, as he circled the group like a vulture, "Thought maybe it would stop me? I don't think so. That's why Odol and I went to Kiur— when we can make him a Somebody—"

"A Nobody can't become a Somebody!" Nessa told him.

"When we can make him a Somebody," Anton continued, ignoring his cousin, "He can take us to Kingdom Hearts where we can be granted the power of darkness, and rule over the natural Heartless just as he can rule over the ones he's created."

"That's impossible," Riku countered, stopping his circling by sticking out his Way to Dawn, and walked out from the group to look at Anton head-on, "Only somebody that already had the power of darkness can grant you that power, and it's not a power you want."

"Kingdom Hearts can't do that for you," Sora called back at him, even though he wasn't looking at him, "We sealed Kingdom Hearts up two years ago."

"Shows how much you know," Anton laughed, but said nothing else.

"What do you mean?" asked Kairi, finally speaking up.

"You won't live long enough to figure that out." Anton spoke, his lips curling into a horrible smile. Riku charged at him with Way to Dawn. As the two keyblades clashed, sparks of black and white bursted out like fireworks.

Riku managed to slice at Anton's legs, tripping him to the ground. From the ground, when Riku went to stab him, Anton kicked him in the stomach and flipped himself back onto his feet.

"Riku!" called Charity. He looked over at them while dodging another hit from Anton. The Red Shadows were surrounding them, "We have to get back to Hollow Bastion! We'll worry about them later!"

Riku mumbled something, but he trusted Charity. He abandoned his fight with Anton, and ran into the Gummi Ship.

Meanwhile, as Anton saw the Gummi Ship blast off and out of the world, his grin only grew stronger. "Say good-bye to Azure Daybreak."

xxxxx

"This isn't good," Chip called back to them, "Hollow Bastion's off the radar again!"

"Again?" asked Sora, rushing up to where Chip and Dale were manning the controls. It was true; instead of Hollow Bastion on the radar was an impassable cloud of darkness.

"Dammit..." Leander mumbled, "It's probably those new Heartless."

"But the defense system will help out with that, right?" asked Kairi to Leander. He nodded slightly as Nessa rested her head on his shoulder.

"I'm nervous." she admitted, "About Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, Axel, Cloud..." her voice trailed. She hardly knew them, but already they were like family to her.

"We have three choices as far as sealed worlds go that we can rest at, then," Sora called back to them, "Twilight Town, Traverse Town, or Destiny Islands."

The decision was almost unanimous, and they made their way over to Destiny Islands.

xxxxx

"It looks like Kiur hasn't thought about sending the Red Shadows to the islands yet." Kairi said, exhausted as she slid down the wall of the Secret Place and sat next to some of the old drawings that Sora, Riku, and herself had made together.

"Yeah," Sora thought aloud, "but just sitting here doing nothing isn't going to get us anywhere."

"Well," Nessa started, "this might be a good chance to get out of our pajamas."

Leander's face darkened a little bit.

"Right," Riku responded, as they left the Secret Place, "over in these boats, we'll take you to the main island."

xxxxx

"You're back so soon." Kiur stated, not questioned, "I'm surprised. Should I be disappointed?" he asked, as he went through a few hearts. They were in the new hide out, probably much closer to the group than they would have liked.

"Not at all," Anton mumbled, sitting down, "I think you'd be kinda proud."

"None of these hearts will do it." Kiur said, grimacing slightly, "The strongest ones these heartless can find, and yet none of them just yet."

"I'm sure they'll find one," Anton encouraged, messing up the back of his head with his right hand, while his Way to Twilight stayed in his left.

"They'd better." he crushed one of the hearts in his hand. Suddenly before him, a red shadow had appeared with a heart in its hand. "Is this one of a keyblade wielder?"

The red shadow didn't answer him, but Kiur already knew the answer, "It's useless, then." he said, crushing this heart as well. Whatever Nobody or Heartless that had been created when the heart was stolen was gone now, and there was absolutely no way of getting the original owner back; he or she was dead.

"I need the heart of a keyblade wielder." he said, "That's the only heart strong enough to make me a Somebody."

Anton looked down, "Nessa, my cousin, she told me that a Nobody can't become a Somebody again."

Kiur growled, "Don't say things like that! She herself and Riku both became Somebodies, and Riku was lost in the darkness for the second time."

"But those were both special cases," Anton rebelled, "Riku had given his heart to his friends, in a matter of speaking, so he never really lost it. Nessa was born with a heart, and because she didn't have a Somebody, the heart went to her."

"Thats—!" Kiur stopped, his anger level draining, "So... _that's_ what I have to do," he thought aloud, and pushed the hearts on the desk that he was sitting at aside, "I need my Somebody's heart. I need the hearts of Kairi, Sora, and Charity."

"That's not what I—..."

"That's it." Kiur decided. "Send the new orders to the Red Shadows. We're getting the hearts of The Order of Keys."

xxxxx

"That's a lot better." sighed Nessa, who was in a purple skirt of Kairi's, a light pink shirt, and long boots. She was closer to Kairi's size, so it was easier for her, but Charity had to go out and buy clothes herself.

She was wearing a light green sleeveless top with plain blue jeans, and had orange and black shoes on, which matched her orange and black striped wrist warmers. Leander had borrowed some simple clothing from Sora, and Sora was back in a seafoam green and purple outfit. Riku, however, was wearing a vest without a shirt underneath, and lose jeans. He also had a white armband on his left arm, and was wearing a fingerless glove on his right. Kairi was back into the clothing she used to wear when she was younger, but her size again. With her hair shorter and her old clothes on, Sora couldn't help but to mention the memories it brought back.

"It does, doesn't it?" asked Kairi. She looked up at the sun from the path they were walking down to get back to the shore, "I just wish I was still that... I don't know. Outgoing?" she asked. The two journeys that she had gone through and the third one that she was on had changed her personality quite a bit.

"I still like you." Sora mumbled.

Kairi turned around as she felt her face tint a color it never had before.

They all found themselves sitting on the shore of the beach. "We'll have to go back in the Gummi Ship shortly to see if Hollow Bastion's back on the radar." Sora said, trying to get his mind off of Kairi and back on the topic at hand.

"Why does Kiur want to become a Somebody so damn bad?" asked Charity, stubbornly blowing a piece of hair out of her face.

"You feel incomplete, I guess." came a voice from within Sora. Roxas appeared out of him, much to Nessa's delight. It was like seeing an old friend after they had come back from a long vacation.

"Incomplete? Like how?" asked Charity, who wasn't the slightest bit unnerved by Roxas's random appearance from Sora's body. It seemed like she was ready for anything nowadays, and nothing seemed impossible.

"Like the incomplete you felt when Exie wasn't with you anymore." came a voice from within Kairi. Naminé walked out, and sat next to Roxas, looking over at Charity.

"So, don't you guys ever feel incomplete?" Charity asked the two of them.

"Sometimes." Roxas said lightly.

"I'm alright with being with Kairi," Naminé started, much to Kairi's flattery, "but sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have a heart of my own. The only reason Roxas or I feel anything is because we feel what Kairi and Sora do."

Charity looked at the two of them with confusion. Sora, Riku, Leander, Kairi, and Nessa all seemed to be preoccupied with the sunset.

"So if a special Nobody like yourself appeared, but with the ability to create hearts for anybody instead of memories, would you ask for one?" asked Charity.

"I probably would," Roxas spoke up, "as long as it was a blank heart. Like a clean slate, where we could create our own memories and emotions for ourselves."

"I couldn't have said it much better." Naminé admitted, as she laid down on the warm sand.

"It must be nice to live on an island," said a voice within Charity as Exie stepped out. She was still in her Organization uniform, and despite Charity's change in hair color, she still had blonde hair with brown tips.

"Is this like, Nobody Happy Hour?" asked Sora, earning a laugh from pretty much everybody sitting down.

"If it was, Kiur would be here." Riku mentioned, shuddering slightly.

"That wouldn't be a _happy_ hour anymore, I'm thinking." Charity laughed, resting her head on Riku's shoulder. He kissed her head gently, and laughed along.

"Probably not."

xxxxx

"Alright," Anton called back to Kiur, "The Heartless have been called out of Hollow Bastion."

"Perfect," Kiur responded pleasantly, "Now we just have to find the Order of Keys and order an attack on them."

Anton rolled his eyes. Odol appeared in the room with them.

"What's going on? I went to Hollow Bastion and no Heartless were there."

Kiur sighed, "I take it you missed the memo." Under the setting sun, Kiur's dark, silver hair almost reflected every light of the sunset.

"Twilight." Anton mumbled to himself, looking outside.

"What was that?" asked Kiur.

"Mm, nothing."

xxxxx

"We should go back to the Gummi Ship," Riku suggested, as they all went inside the boats, "There's not enough room for all of you; what I'm saying is, Naminé, Roxas, Exie... could you _please_ go back inside your bodies now?"

They returned as asked, but not in a very happy way. Exie started to criticize Riku inside of Charity's mind, and when Charity told her, "Will you shut up?!" she got some pretty strange looks from everybody else.

"Alright, take off." Sora told the chipmunks as he walked inside of the Gummi Ship.

"Hollow Bastion's on the radar again!" Dale called back to them, once he was high enough for the radar to pick it up.

"Well, quick you dummy! Get in there!" Chip told him, hitting him over the head. Quicker than they had ever flown the Gummi Ship before, they rushed to Hollow Bastion.

When they landed, what they saw was horrifying. Buildings were half-destroyed, if they weren't fully gone. The market had been a total wreck, and most of the defense systems were destroyed. If there were any Red Shadows there before, they certainly hadn't found what they were looking for and retreated. Sora was thankful that he had gotten his Ultima Weapon keychain synthesized before everything had been destroyed.

"This is..." Leander mumbled. He had been working for so long with the restoration committee to return Hollow Bastion to its former glory, and it was worse than how it started.

"Bad." Nessa finished for him, gripping his arm. She had a bad feeling that, at any second, Kiur, Odol, or Anton could jump out at them.

"We have to get to Merlin's house." Riku decided. He grabbed Charity's hand, and they ran at full speed towards the house.

Thankfully, the house was still fully in tact, but when they walked inside, it didn't seem that their spirit was. Aerith, Cloud, Cid, and Leon were all sitting on the couches. Leon had his head on his hand, thinking, Cloud sat with his arms crossed, and Aerith looked on the verge of tears.

"What's going on?" asked Kairi, as if she really had to.

Cloud sighed heavily, "Yuffie's dead."


	13. The Crows are Coming For Us

CHAPTER XIII

The Crows are Coming For Us

(NOTE)

Wow. This has gotten quite far. Yuffie's gone, Kiur is rising in power, and the Order of Keys is in serious danger of heart lossage. XD Read and review, and I don't own anything except the plot and my characters. Which I technically never put a copyright on anyway. :3

(/NOTE)

The atmosphere just wasn't the same without Yuffie around. Nothing seemed cheerful anymore, even with Aerith's overall positive demeanor. Things surely were a lot quieter, and Cloud refused to speak to anybody.

Cid had told them that a strange red heartless had taken Yuffie's heart, but instead of sending her to the darkness and making her a heartless, it seemed to examine it and then crush it right in front of them. Charity didn't even want to think about what it would feel like to lose a good friend right in front of her eyes in such a way.

"We've got another unsealed world," Cid called to them. Charity was thankful for something to break the unwanted silence, and she almost rushed over to the computer screen. "It's a new one, I don't think it was ever unsealed before."

"Looks like it," Sora mumbled, pressing his face to the screen, "What's it called?"

"Universally, it's called the Great Valley." Cid replied. **(Author's Note: For those of you who know what's coming up next, I realize that The Land Before Time isn't a Disney movie, but I had to. I grew up on that stuff. ;)**

"Great," said Leander, "Another valley."

"We've never been to a valley," Kairi told him, her eyes narrowing, "what are you complaining about?"

"There are valleys EVERYWHERE where we live." Nessa sighed.

"Even just having to go there for school can make someone crazy." Leander clarified.

"Alright, let's get going." Sora said. Charity, Riku, Nessa, Leander, and Kairi walked out the door, when they realized they were being followed.

"Hey!" said Axel smoothly, as he walked out the door, "It's hard to hang around in tear fest up in there, so I'ma come with you. Got it memorized?" he asked.

Something lit up within Sora, "Sure." he said.

They all boarded the Gummi Ship, and made their way towards this undiscovered world.

xxxxx

"What's the point in luring the Order to a new world when we can just go after their hearts in Hollow Bastion?" asked Anton, swatting at a fly with his keyblade.

"Because they're ready for us in Hollow Bastion now." Kiur told him.

"You can't be too sure of that," cooed Anton unnecessarily at the fly, "After that Heartless got rid of that Ninja, they probably aren't ready for anything over there."

"Don't question me." said Kiur, who just didn't like to be outsmarted. Odol threw his keyblade down on the floor.

"That's it, I've kept my mouth shut too long." he said. His keyblade, naturally, reappeared into his hand, "If you guys don't shut up with your arguing I'm going to pull my own eye— no, I'm going to pull Anton's eye out. Just stop talking."

Anton glared at Kiur.

"Why should I stop talking?" Anton began to coo softly, "After all, at least I'm the one with the right to be."

At this, Kiur let out a low growl, and grabbed Anton by the collar of his shirt. "Do you want the power of darkness or not?"

Anton snorted, and looked over at Odol, who wasn't even paying attention to them anymore.

"I'm debating."

xxxxx

"What in all of hell?" Nessa somberly, for once, asked herself. Looking down at her own being, she was most definitely no longer covered in her own skin, but an odd, reddish, coarse skin. She had a long tail, short arms, long legs, and a small horn on the top of her head.

"Wow," said Charity, "You're an oviraptor!" she smiled.

Sora, who seemed to be a Brontosaurus of some kind, just hung his mouth open, "How do you know that?"

"I studied dinosaurs once," she said, and she looked down at herself, "I'm a pterodactyl." she stated happily.

"Well, I could figure that one out." Sora mentioned, as she was the only one with wings. She was just standing; obviously unable to fly as she never learned.

"Riku's an anodontosaurus. I remember that because they're really cool with this spikey armor." Charity obviously had a passion for dinosaurs.

"My back's really heavy." Riku complained sheepishly.

"Kairi's a Nanosaurus, and... wow. I have no idea what you are." she said, looking over at Leander. He gave them a lopsided smile.

"Maybe he's a mutt." suggested Kairi.

"Axel... Axel's a tyrannosaurus." Charity mumbled, scratching the back of her head.

"Great, now that I know what I am, I don't see any Heartless anywhere." he complained.

"SHARP TOOTH!" came a small shout. They looked downwards at some dinosaurs that were only slightly smaller than them. In the area they were dropped off at, this group of five dinosaurs were the only ones there.

"Wait, what?" asked Charity.

"Are you blind?! What's wrong with you? Fly from the sharp tooth! Fly, fly, fly!" came another, slightly smaller pterodactyl, pulling on Charity's wing.

"Wait, wait, wait, hang on a second, I'm not a pterodactyl, really, I—!"

He was lifting her with all his might, "What's a pterodactyl?" he asked in a small voice, "You're a flier!"

"I'm not— Oh, it doesn't matter. Forget it. Okay, I'm a flier."

"Great, now fly!" came an angry looking Triceratops.

"From what?!" asked Nessa angrily.

"The sharp tooth! There!" stuttered a Brontosaurus, slightly smaller than Sora, pointing his long neck at Axel.

"My teeth aren't that sharp." said Axel, looking crestfallen.

"He's talking to us! Run, run!" the pterodactyl screamed.

"This is Axel, he isn't dangerous," cooed Kairi, trying to calm them down, "Now I need your help with something," she said, and the pterodactyl let go of Charity, letting her drop to the ground. "Have you seen any strange black, white, or red creatures here?"

"Well, I've seen a bunch of red three-horns, but that's just when they get angry." a small duck-like dinosaur called a Parasaurolophus joked. Apparently, this was funny. It was funny to everyone except the Triceratops and the Order.

"So what are we doing here?" asked Axel, upset. Apparently his mere presence scared the other dinosaurs.

"Okay, so what are your names?" Sora asked them.

"I'm Ducky," said the duck-like dinosaur.

"Big shocker there." Charity mumbled to herself.

"I'm Littlefoot," said the Brontosaurus, which greatly confused the group.

"I'm Petrie." said the hyper Pterodactyl.

"And I'm Cera," said the Triceratops, the group seeming delighted to hear a normal name, considering it was pronounced like 'Sarah'. "What are your names? Are you new to the valley or something?"

They all stated their names, "And yeah, we're... er... tourists?" asked Kairi to the rest of them.

"...What?" asked Littlefoot.

"Nothing," said Charity quickly, trying to change the subject, "Are you sure you haven't seen anything weird happening?"

"Well," Ducky started, getting on top of the dinosaur that was never introduced to them, "There's this cave, and—"

Littlefoot scowled, "Ducky..."

"There's this cave. Three long-necks went in there already, and none of them ever came back out!" she told them.

"That... might be it." said Riku.

"Well, let's get going then. Which way is the cave?" Charity asked them.

"Oh, nononono, you can't go anywhere walking! You have to fly!" Petrie insisted.

"That's okay, shorty, I've walked my whole life I'll walk some more." Charity said. She called upon her keyblade, and looked at it sadly. "Oh crap."

"What's wrong— Oh." Riku stopped, looking at Charity. Her keyblade was at least twice her size. "That can be a problem."

"I guess you can't fight then." Kairi mentioned. She was quite small, too, although she seemed to be able to carry her keyblade in her mouth.

Riku picked Charity up by his mouth, and put her in between two of the plates on his back. Charity mumbled stubbornly as Littlefoot showed them the way to the cave.

xxxxx

"Are you sure you want to go in here?" asked Littlefoot, "It's really scary. A bunch of dinosaurs went in here just five minutes ago and—!"

"WILL YOU JUST SHUT THE HELL UP?" shouted Nessa, intimidating this dinosaur even with her size. Littlefoot whimpered, and backed up a few steps.

"Are you guys coming in?" asked Kairi, who thankfully wasn't in a pissed off mood, trying to calm down the other dinosaurs.

"No, my grandparents won't let me in there." Littlefoot responded. The rest of them didn't seem to need an excuse; their scared-out-of-our-minds faces were enough to tell the group that they just didn't want to go in.

"Pussies." Charity mumbled.

As they walked into the cave, it was dark, damp, and disgusting. It smelled of rotting bodies and darkness, which oddly enough, had a smell.

"We couldn't turn into dragons," Nessa mumbled, "Have some light in here."

"I'd help if I could... I don't know, carry my keyblade." Charity laughed.

Axel pulled out his two weapons, and fire surrounded them. "Perfect." Sora responded, as they got further into the cave. It seemed as though it went on forever, and any small little noise could send rocks falling.

"Well, well, well, look who's here?" came Anton's voice. Somehow, he was still a human, and he was resting his back against the cave wall. It had already bothered Axel how much their personalities were similar.

"What are you doing here?" asked Sora, as choppy as his voice was with his keyblade in his mouth.

"It's called a distraction."

At this, the rest of the group swung their heads around. A mysterious barrier appeared around them, and at least a hundred red shadows had slid out from the ground. **Author's Note: If you don't know where the barrier came from, just remember the game.**

"See ya never," Anton saluted them, and disappeared backwards in one of Kiur's swirling vortexes.

"There are too many here," Nessa complained, who refused to have her back open for one second. Being the only one, along with Axel, standing on two feet, they guarded each other's backs as they attacked at the small, but powerful, Heartless.

Charity, on the other hand, was desperately trying to hang on to Riku's back. She had no idea before how agilely he moved in battle, but it was a lot less smooth than intended to the actual persona. She would often tell Riku where to go to avoid Heartless that were behind him, which helped in the slightest, anyway.

Finally finishing off the last Heartless, Sora sighed as he gasped for breath. "I get it now. I think I really get it."

"Get what?" asked Kairi, happy when the invisible barrier seemed to disappear.

"Kiur thinks that the only heart that will work for him is Riku's, so he's attacking all of us; his friends, where Riku said his heart is."

"Dammit." Riku muttered to himself, "so it's my fault you guys are mixed up in all of this."

"We would have been mixed up anyway," Charity told him comfortingly, "That damn King wants us to do everything. And besides, we'd never leave you to deal with your maniac of a Nobody, er, Heartless-thing on your own."

Riku smiled. He wanted to kiss her, but found it a bit hard. "Thanks." he responded, although he still felt a twinge of guilt.

"Well, they didn't get it this time. Where's the—?" Sora stopped.

"Keyhole?" asked Charity, "Over there," she pointed to a small carving in the rock of the cave walls, along with many others. They were probably done by younger dinosaurs earlier on.

"It's just a drawing," Kairi told her.

"The heart of our world lies in children." Charity told her.

"Is that a proverb?" asked Nessa, who seemed to finally get her sense of humor back after blowing up at the young dinosaur.

"Probably."

Sora, nonetheless, pointed his keyblade at the wall. A light flashed, reassuring Sora that this was definitely the heart of the Great Valley, and created an outline around the keyhole. As it sealed, Sora let his keyblade rest at his side, and it soon enough disappeared.

"Let's get back now." Charity suggested, "We'll probably have to fight Anton soon enough, if Kiur hasn't killed him already for his failing."

xxxxx

"You're an idiot." Kiur reminded Anton, "What you should have done was stayed with them until they destroyed all of the heartless, and sent in more."

"You're the one that sent the portal." Anton reminded him.

"It doesn't mean you had to go through it!" Kiur argued.

"The point is," Odol stopped them, "You didn't get any hearts, and that's okay, because I just sent more Heartless to three new worlds, and unlocked all three of them."

"Right. Good." Kiur said, settling down, "You told me earlier that you did something worth noting as well. For once. What?" he asked.

Anton smirked, and smugly rested his back against the wall, "I destroyed their precious Azure Daybreak and everyone in it."

xxxxx

"This is weird," Chip told everybody, "Azure Daybreak isn't on the radar anymore."

"Is it full of Heartless?" asked Nessa, rushing up to see the radar herself.

"No, it's just... not on the radar. It's gone." said Dale.

Something dropped heavily in Charity's stomach. Her world was gone; her family, friends, pets, everything. "You-you're kidding," she said, a tear forming in her eye, even though she was almost positive it was a joke, "Right?" she asked them.

There was no response from Chip and Dale, but Nessa was pressing odd buttons next to the radar, "No way, no way. It has to be here, it's just malfunctioning!" she cried out.

"Stop touching those!" Chip told her sternly, but it was too late. The Gummi Ship was crash landing, seemingly into nothing, but it wasn't before long that they realized they were heading for a giant whale.

The thing opened its mouth and swallowed the ship whole.

xxxxx

"Hm? Riku, Charity's up." came Nessa's voice. Charity pulled her head up, giving her a quick headache. She looked around; they seemed to be on a broken ship in a dank cave.

"Where are we?" asked Charity.

"Welcome to Monstro." Riku told her.

Charity rubbed her head, "Where's Kairi, Leander, and Sora?" she asked, trying to stand up, and almost failing. "And Axel?"

"We're not sure. They're probably in here somewhere." Nessa smiled.

"Well, at least we're in a whale." said Charity. Earning two odd looks, she finished it by saying, "Not like that, I mean, there aren't any Heartless in here, right? Because we're in a whale. ...Right?" she asked, not being able to read the look on Riku's face. "How can there be Heartless in a whale?" she asked angrily. "Whoever in Square decided that there should be Heartless in a whale should be beaten with a wet noodle."

"There isn't a keyhole, though, so I don't understand what the point of being here is," Riku said, "It's best that we just find the rest and get back to Hollow Bastion."

If only it had been that easy. Angrily trying to maneuver their way through Monstro, even Riku seemed kind of confused.

"Okay, so this doorway takes you to his stomach, right?" asked Nessa, as she jumped through.

"No, that takes you... right to the beginning... Why am I bothering?" asked Riku, who followed her. Charity tagged close along.

Meanwhile, Sora, Kairi, and Leander were being smart and waiting in Monstro's mouth for them.

"I can't believe Nessa and Charity's world was destroyed." Leander said, who must have been in the strongest disbelief because he had gone to school there every day. Axel was sitting with them, randomly touching fire to Monstro's tongue to see it's reaction.

"I think they're still in denial." Sora said, rubbing the back of his head, "I was, too when the islands were sucked in by darkness."

"This is different," said Kairi, "it's not even on the radar now, it's totally gone, including everybody in it. The world can't be brought back now, it's been, probably, blown up."

"That's positive." Leander said.

"In comparison to your statements? Yeah, it kind of is." Kairi argued.

"There you are!" Riku called, running up to them.

"I told you all we should have just waited at the mouth." Nessa said.

"No, you didn't, you kept insisting on going through the same doorway that brought us to the beginning." Charity joked, and jumped on Nessa's back.

Thankfully, the Gummi Ship was still resting peacefully on top of Monstro's baleen, and they all got on it to make their way back to Hollow Bastion.

xxxxx

"It's really true then." Charity tried to convince herself as they sat around the table with everyone in the Hollow Bastion restoration committee and the Order. "Azure Daybreak's gone. All of it." She felt her eyes well up again, and wasn't sure how much more crying she could take.

"I'm sick of this guy. Riku, your Nobody's a real asshole." Nessa said, fighting back some tears of her own. Same old Nessa; unafraid to speak her mind.

"You can say that again." Riku said.

"It looks like we all have a reason to hate Kiur right now." said Cloud, his first set of words in two days. "This is just all the more reason to destroy him."

"He's going after you three," Riku stated, looking at Charity, Sora, and Kairi, "and he always will be, so always be on your guard. For right now, I have a plan."

**Author's Note: This isn't technically a cliffhanger because it's just a plan, right? Right:dodges flying kitchen supplies: Aheh. Right. Well, I'll be sure to update soon, see you next chapter! Heh. :runs away:**


	14. I Hope You Know You're Letting Go

CHAPTER XIV

I Hope You Know You're Letting Go

(NOTE)

Okay, I should warn everyone that this is the penultimate chapter in the series; that is to say, the next one is the last. Don't be worried, though, I plan to start a sequel immediately after. I'd like to use some of this time wrapping up this fanfic coming up with a plotline. xD So, rate and review, and thank you to everybody who has been so far, if you weren't, I wouldn't have continued this!

(/NOTE)

"So, that's the plan?" asked Charity, one eye much wider open than the other.

"It's risky," Nessa admitted, "but it might just work."

"And we know Anton well enough to know how to get to him. I have a good feeling about this, actually." said Leander.

"Leander has a... good feeling about something?" asked Kairi. Nessa managed a giggle, but Charity still wasn't in all that good of a mood to do anything. Ever since Azure Daybreak had been destroyed, all she wanted to do was throw something, kick somebody, or cry. Trying to stray away from these emotions, she set her mind totally on Riku's plan at hand.

"Where do you think the next unlocked world's going to be at?" asked Nessa.

"That doesn't matter," Sora told her, "They're going after Kairi, Charity, and I, so wherever we go, Anton or Odol is going to go also. They think that they're luring us."

Nessa smirked, "I think I get it."

"We've got two hits," Cid said, looking at his computer screen. This time, nobody bothered to get up and go check, "at Traverse Town and Atlantica."

"Ugh, I hate Atlantica." Sora moaned lightly, earning a look from Riku. "What?"

"Traverse Town," said Kairi with interest, "And if we all split up, both of them have to go to a world at once. Then we just have to lure in Kiur."

"Exactly!" Riku said, who was excited for once in a long time. "Charity, Sora, and I will all go to Atlantica, Kairi, Leander, and Nessa can all go to Traverse Town."

"What about me?" asked Axel, "You know you're not leaving me out." He had just walked into the room with a toothbrush in his hand. Why he was brushing his teeth, the rest of them weren't all that interested in finding out.

"You can come with us to Atlan— er, on second thought, maybe you'd better stay out of the water and go with them to Traverse Town." Sora told him, scratching the back of his head sheepishly while staring at the ground.

"Right," Axel said, "I'll be ready in a minute."

xxxxx

"Kiur, we've got a problem," said Odol, looking at his radar, "It looks like two Gummi ships are leaving Hollow Bastion."

"Where are they going?" asked Kiur, who was lazily sitting on a chair, thinking.

"It looks like Traverse Town and Atlantica."

"Perfect. Odol, you go to Atlantica and head them off, and Anton can go to Traverse Town."

"I don't like the water." Odol complained.

"Too bad. You're going to Atlantica.

"But I haven't swam in ages." Anton retaliated.

"Too bad. You're going to Traverse Town." He opened portals for them, and practically shoved them inside.

xxxxx

"I'm a fish." Charity said shortly, looking down. Her fish half was orange, and was wearing a green sea-shell bra. "An oddly revealing fish."

Riku, on the other hand, seemed to be part shark. He had a dorsal fin on his fish half, which was both a dark and light grey, and a very dangerous looking tail. Sora just looked like a plain old merman with a blue tail.

"Where was the keyhole to this world?" asked Riku to Sora.

"Ariel's grotto, but it doesn't matter anyway because the keyholes were switched around." Sora replied.

"Right, I forgot about that." Charity mentioned.

"Let's find Ariel. Maybe she'll know." Sora suggested. It took only a second for Riku and Charity to get the hang of swimming underwater; but it was actually very similar to the dolphin kick that they learned during their school's swimming lessons.

"These Heartless are messed up," Riku commented, as he hit some sort of fish with a light sticking out of its head, "It won't go away."

"That's because that's not a Heartless," Sora said, "That's a fish."

The fish glared at Riku.

"The Heartless are the darker ones." Sora mumbled.

"It's a lot harder to tell the difference because we don't generally spend our time underwater." Charity stated, in Riku's defense. She stabbed at another Heartless, but was surprised to see it swim underneath her. "It's also a lot harder in general to fight under here."

"You get used to it." Sora said, as he swam ahead to show the way to King Trident's castle.

"How can you maneuver your way through all of this?" asked Riku to Sora, who was skillfully weaving through rocks and schools of fish and Heartless, some of which were red, to a certain point before attacking more Heartless.

"Oh, there are tridents pointing the way on the walls!" Sora responded.

Charity sighed, "Of course."

xxxxx

"I think I like Twilight Town better." Axel said, stroking the flurry of his red hair.

"I think I agree." Nessa said, looking around. Nobody around them seemed to be happy, and there were odd creatures that called themselves Moogles practically flooding the place. There were one or two in Hollow Bastion before it was attacked, but there were never so many.

"Maybe I'm crazy," said Kairi, "but I think it was a lot prettier before." Kairi stared up at the dark sky, "It's probably just because I was always safe inside of a house. The Heartless must have really done a number on this place before Sora finally got around to sealing it."

"I can see that." said Leander. They walked forward, and found a woman with long, black hair that was tied in a ponytail and parted like a fin at the end. She was wearing a white tank top, a mini skirt, red shoes and gloves, and a more than worried face.

"Hey, Tifa!" Kairi called. She had gotten to meet Tifa on multiple occasions, but never for too long.

"Kairi," the woman said back, a small smile appearing on her face, "Are you here to seal the keyhole?" she asked her, hopefully.

"We are," Kairi responded, "but we're also here to get someone. It'll go along with the keyhole. Do you know where it is?"

Tifa looked down slightly. "I'm not all that sure. I'm thinking that it's where Merlin's house used to be— that's a pretty good hunch, anyway— but I haven't found a keyblade wielder that could help me, but now you guys can."

"That's great, that's great, but can we get going?" asked Axel.

"Aren't you a member of Organization XIII?" asked Tifa, who didn't seem to be able to believe her eyes.

"_Ex_-member, ex-member." he corrected her, scratching his nose.

Tifa rolled her eyes just slightly, "We have to pass through second and third districts first, and you know the fire spell, right?" she asked Kairi and Leander, whom she noticed also had a keyblade.

"I think I like this town," Nessa said out of nowhere, holding a random moogle by its colorful antennae, and shaking it up and down. She was quickly knocked off of balance by a Red Shadow that appeared from underneath her.

"First district, too?" asked Tifa, "We can't waste time fighting them here, we have to get off to the Third District." she told them. Running towards the dividing doors, Nessa, Kairi, Leander, and Axel all followed her.

xxxxx

"You know about these odd red Heartless?" asked King Triton to Sora, "Oh, your friends have changed," he mentioned, first noting Riku and Charity, "The duck has changed quite a bit, but I don't remember the dog being part shark."

"Dog?" asked Riku, his eyes narrowing.

"They're different friends," Sora said quickly, "and yeah, they're just the same Heartless, except they're not after anybody except me, Kairi, and Charity," he said, pointing to who King Triton thought was a duck, "but as long as the keyhole's unsealed, you'll still get the regular Heartless here, so we really have to find it."

"The keyholes have been moved, hm? If it's not in Ariel's grotto, I'd suggest the sunken ship. Or even Ursula's Lair. Those are my only suggestions now, as I haven't seen any keyholes in my castle." King Triton told them.

"Have you seen any weird merman with dark skin and black, spikey hair, or another one with red and blond hair and big, gray eyes?" asked Charity.

"Can't say that I have, no, little duck." replied King Triton pleasantly.

"Duck?" she asked, groaning.

"Thank you, King Triton!" Sora said, trying to rush the two out of the castle before they went crazy with hatred for this man.

"Oh, and try to find Ariel while you're out if you could! Maybe the dog can sniff her out."

Riku looked back, but Sora continued to push him outside of the castle. "I think he's gone a bit... loopy." Sora understated.

"You would, too, if you had to swim your whole life. I'm having trouble remembering which way is up and I've only been under here for a half an hour." Charity complained. The only thing that kept her under there was seeing Riku without his shirt on. **Author's Note: Joke, joke. Calm down. xDD**

"How do we get to the sunken ship?" asked Riku, looking around.

Suddenly, Sora grabbed onto a swimming creature, "Like this!" he shouted, grabbing Riku's hand who grabbed Charity's. They were on top of a dolphin, swimming fast towards a current.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God!" Charity repeated. She kept feeling like she was going to slip, "Why do we have to ride a dolphin?!" she asked.

"Because I forgot how to do the dolphin kick so I can't get past the currents." he responded. They were dumped off at an extension of the currents, and found themselves facing a large, beat-down ship, half dug into the ground.

"This is original." Charity spoke sarcastically, though interested to see the different parts of the dirt-brown ship. She inadvertently flipped upside down, but swam quickly towards the ship nonetheless.

"We might want to stay by Riku so the shark doesn't attack us," Sora warned, as Riku quickly swam towards Charity, and Sora lagged behind, "because he's part shark and everything."

Charity laughed at him. "It's a shark, you could knock it out easily, what with two years of experience." she smirked.

"I don't see a keyhole." Riku said, looking everywhere around the ship.

"That's fine, we've still got Ursula's lair to look in." Sora said.

"Ursula?" asked Charity, swiping at a stubborn Red Shadow relentlessly. She wondered quickly how a Red Shadow was underwater.

"Don't worry, we got rid of her a long time ago." Sora said, happily.

xxxxx

"This place just gets worse every day," Tifa complained, punching violently at a Large Body. Its stomach seemed to be like rubber.

"At least we're almost at Merlin's house," Kairi said optimistically, running towards an intricately engraved door, "and here we are." she said.

"Is here where we use fire?" asked Leander.

"Wow, I wonder." joked Nessa, pointing at the fire design on the door.

"Thanks." said Leander, kissing her on the cheek.

"Anytime." she smiled.

"Fira!" Kairi said, pointing her keyblade at the door. A small ring of fire spewed out from the tip of the blade, and suddenly they were able to open the door. "I've never done that before." Kairi admitted.

"Now what?" asked Nessa, as she looked over a small lake or pond of water, and stepping stones that almost seemed like they were moving in front of them. In the center of this pond was a small island with a beat down house.

"We hop across these and get inside." Kairi told them. "It's actually kind of fun." she said, hopping onto the first, and then the second, and the third. Nessa, Leander, and Tifa seemed to have no problem getting across, but Axel was practically clinging to each rock as he made his way across, muttering something about water being too 'wet'.

"It looks like you were right about the keyhole being in Merlin's house." Kairi told Tifa, as she looked ahead, fear causing her to tremble slightly. Anton stood against Merlin's house in the same lazy stance as he had in The Great Valley.

"Of course." Tifa said, looking at the boy. He wasn't too old, and Tifa was confident that they could take him.

xxxxx

"This place is just the slightest bit creepy," Charity mentioned, purposely underestimating. The tunnel they were going through was dark and cold, and small caves that branched off of it only added more to the mystery of what lay in Ursula's lair.

"Somehow I think it's creepier now that Ursula isn't here." said Sora. He was mostly agreeing with Charity, but Riku didn't say anything. He did, however, take the lead and be the first one to enter a large room with a giant cauldron in it.

"I practically had to fight that cauldron." Sora complained. He hated remembering to use fire when it was red and blizzard when it was blue; the only thing that made it worthwhile was being able to beat the shit out of Ursula every time he did.

"This can't be where the keyhole is." stated Charity. "Anton or Odol would have been here guarding it."

"Maybe I made a false alarm. Maybe they're really not both coming to two different worlds at the same time." Riku said. Although his plan seemed perfect, he was really starting to gain doubt about whether or not it would work.

A cough— that gave everything away. Sora quickly swam over to the cauldron, and looked inside of it. In a dark swoosh, Odol popped out and headed beeline for them.

"Perfect!" Riku shouted, defending himself with Way to Dawn as Odol struck at him, and Sora went behind him, slamming the hell out of him with the Kingdom Key.

"Thundara!" Charity cried, mimicking a spell she had seen Sora use before. Much to her pleasure, tens of lightning bolts fell down out of nowhere, and one hit Odol head on. He swung backwards, but regained himself by rebounding off of a wall, where he kicked Sora so he spun backwards, and started striking at him with Midday Descending.

Charity swam from under him, and struck her keyblade in his shins where he flipped upside-down in the water, and Riku jabbed him at his side. Losing only a small amount of his energy, however, Odol took his keyblade by both hands and began to spin rapidly underwater, hitting the three of them at least two times each before Charity managed to escape the vortex and slam her Savior of Balance into the side of his head, while imitating Riku and jabbing Destroyer of Balance into his sides.

The battle continued.

xxxxx

Things were getting crazy in Traverse Town. Tifa had been long knocked out after greatly underestimating Anton's power. Axel was waiting from above Merlin's house, deciding the perfect time to make a move. Meanwhile, Kairi, Leander, and Nessa were fighting it out like they never had before.

"Give it up!" Anton taunted, "Being five against one and you still haven't killed me already, what makes you think you can anytime soon?" he asked. In one swift move, he knocked Kairi into the water, and Leander straight through the house, taking it down with him. He also managed to knock Nessa to her knees. Her lips and nose was bleeding, and she had lost all feeling in her legs.

"Cousin Nessa," Anton cooed, getting onto his knees and putting his hand on Nessa's chin, "Could I kill you?" he asked, less of Nessa, and more of himself, sounding amused.

"Go right ahead," she spat, "You're no cousin of mine."

"Give me one good reason," Anton hissed angrily at her, "that I shouldn't just kill you right now."

Nessa smirked. "Look up."

Anton raised an eyebrow and lifted his head, but too late. Axel jumped on him, beating the tar out of him with his Chakram. Nessa, in the meantime, ran into the collapsed house to retrieve Leander, while Kairi swam back up to the small island, and readied her keyblade to attack farther.

xxxxx

Charity managed to pin Odol to the wall with her Destroyer of Balance, while she held up Savior of Balance to his neck, "Riku, Sora, get him!" she told them.

Grabbing some rope from Ursula's wall, they began to tie Odol up. In the meantime, Charity walked over to the cauldron, and sure enough, the keyhole was inside of it. Pointing Savior of Destiny at the outline of the keyhole, a bright light flashed and filled the underwater cave, sealing the world of Atlantica.

"What the heck?!" asked Odol as they tied him up, right before they tied his mouth.

"Now we take him to the Gummi Ship?" Charity asked. Riku nodded, and they began to make their way there. The journey back was a lot more of a pleasant one considering there were no random Heartless attacking them, although Riku still mistook the occasional fish.

"Why 'on't 'ou 'us 'ill 'e?" asked Odol through his tied up mouth.

"Well, we could, but how would we get to Kiur?" asked Charity.

"Plus, killing you would be too easy." Riku smirked.

They hauled him into the Gummi Ship, and made their way back to the half-destroyed Hollow Bastion. "I have one question for you," Charity said tauntingly. She undid his mouth tie, and sat down in front of him, as he was on the floor of the Gummi Ship, "Which one of you sent the Heartless to Hollow Bastion. The ones that killed Yuffie?"

"Anton." he spat at her.

"Riku was right." Charity said, unable to look Odol in his dark eyes, "It's always the quiet ones." Charity flipped him on his stomach, and left him there.

"I wonder how Kairi and the rest of them are doing with getting Anton." Sora said.

"Kairi does quick work," Riku reassured him, "they're probably already at Hollow Bastion waiting for us to get here."

xxxxx

Nessa and Leander were practically two-on-one against Anton now. Axel had been thrown into the water and had an emotional breakdown, and Kairi and Tifa were both knocked out, surprisingly close to each other.

"Isn't two and one a little unfair?" Anton asked in a false lovingly tone.

"I didn't hear you complaining when it was five on one." Nessa gasped, swinging her sword at Anton. She had already dealt him a great number of cuts, but the amount of bruises and bleeding that he had given her was worse. Nessa had come to like being cut open better than just being knocked around; it reminded her that her potential Somebody's heart was full and working inside of her.

Anton jabbed her in the gut with Way to Twilight for at least the third time during that battle.

"Don't touch her!" Leander blackguarded at him, clashing his own keyblade with Anton's.

"Don't tell me what to do." Anton commanded in a slow, deep, and maniac voice. He knocked away Leander's keyblade, and stopped another attack from Nessa. Grabbing the sword by the blade, with a bloody hand Anton wrenched the sword away from her, and hit her out of the way with his keyblade. Leander, who was just standing back up, did not see this happening.

"Leander, no!" Nessa outcried at Leander. Her voice was unheard as Nessa's blade pierced through Leander, and he kneeled still, skewered on the long sword. He hardly had time to drip blood before he slid off of the sword, and dropped to drown in the water below.

"LEANDER!" Nessa cried out, her voice mangled with fear, hate, love, and something in between. Abandoned of her sword, Nessa ran up to Anton and punched him in the face. As he fell to the floor, she regained control of her sword, and without thinking, without looking, stabbed at Anton in the chest.

A chuckle escaped Anton's mouth along with the slightest amount of blood, "You're my cousin... alright." he coughed, and fell forward, his head on Nessa's foot. She backed up. Her eyes were wide, her hands shaking. She dropped her sword, now stained with both the blood of her cousin and her love. The girl looked down at her hands, free of any and all blood, and buried her head in them. She fell to her knees, and bawled like a baby.

She had killed a Nobody before, but never in her whole life could she guess what it was like to kill a human being; let alone her own cousin.

Nessa picked up the sword once more, and pointed it at herself.

"Nessa, what are you thinking?!" came a foggy voice from the distance. Kairi quickly grabbed the sword from Nessa, who turned around and began to cry in her shoulder. "It's okay," Kairi attempted to soothe Nessa, "It's okay. Let's get up and get home."

"No! We have to get Leander! Leander's down there!"

xxxxx

Charity looked over at the door happily as they heard a Gummi Ship land close by. She was excited to talk to Nessa about how the fight went, and was interested in hearing something besides empty threats from a pathetic tied up boy on the floor.

"Nessa!" shouted Charity, running up to her best friend in an embrace. Much to her surprise, Charity held onto her tightly, and began to leak tears all over her shoulder. She was bloody and bruised up, and when Charity tried to talk to her, it was as if no words came through.

Kairi softly attempted to explain everything to Sora and Riku, about how Leander and Anton had both been killed, but she couldn't explain very far because she had been knocked out. They brought Leander's waterlogged body inside with them, and Tifa simply looked down. She felt as if she had failed them, just as Axel did.

"We'll give Leander a proper burial, right next to Yuffie." Cloud told Nessa. She seemed to calm down slightly at his words, although she could hardly hear over her own crying.

xxxxx

_We'll have to give it a night before Kiur comes_, Aerith had said. All of the emotion in the room had been starting to give Charity a headache by then, _but tonight I think that all of us could use a good sleep._

Charity jumped when she heard a knock on her door. She wasn't even used to having a room in Hollow Bastion since Merlin decided to make one for them. "Come in," she hollered over softly. Nessa quietly opened the door, closed it, and came to sit on her bed with her.

Charity didn't even need to ask what's going on, "Nessa, I'm so sorry. I know you cared about him so much. I want you to know that I'll always be here, because you're my best friend." Charity had thought of this ahead of time, but she realized it sounded a lot better in her head.

"Th-thank you, Char," Nessa started, although it seemed there was something else on her mind.

"What's wrong, Nessa?" she asked, "And, I mean... besides that. Something else is wrong." Charity said. She could tell.

"Anton's... dead, too..." she reminded her.

"I know that. A little wrong in the plan, and I know he was your cousin, but with five against one, it was bound to happen eventually."

"You don't get it," Nessa said, her face scrunching up and becoming red again, welling up with tears, "I killed Anton."

She threw herself into Charity's arms again, and began to cry out everything, "I didn't know what to do, and I was scared... he killed Leander, and I wasn't thinking... he killed Leander."

"I understand," whispered Charity, "Shh. Tomorrow, we'll destroy Kiur, and it will all be worthwhile."

"After all this," stated Nessa, still whimpering, "After Yuffie, and Leander ,and Anton... it better be."

**Author's Note: So, Leander was Shishka bobbed, Anton was stabbed, and Axel became an emotional wreck from all the water! I personally think that this was my strongest chapter yet; get ready for the next chapter and last chapter, to be released later today!**


	15. Here's to Goodbye

CHAPTER XV

Here's To Goodbye

(NOTE)

The final chapter of A Step Into the Twilight; I have to thank all of you for reading this far, I personally wouldn't have kept reading; the storyline is kind of jumpy and terrible. I hope you're satisfied with this last chapter, and I'll be starting a sequel immediately, so check back on my profile! Credits are on the next chapter, and thank you!

(/NOTE)

Nessa stared down at her own hands, still in shock and disbelief as they rode the silent ride in the Gummi ship to the last unsealed world; Twilight Town. Roxas was obviously excited, and even Kairi seemed to feel something out of Naminé, if it wasn't just her injuries from the night before paining her. Charity said nothing, but sat in between Nessa and Riku, holding both of their hands.

"We'll be there in a minute," Chip called from the cockpit. Instead of rushing up to offer unwanted help in steering, Sora stayed back to listen to Riku.

"The keyhole's in a new place this time, so what I'm thinking is we should ask around first to see if anyone's seen Kiur."

"That's good," Kairi commented, "wherever Kiur is will take us to the keyhole."

Axel breathed in heavily, "What if this Kiur guy's smarter than he looks?" he asked, coolly glancing over at Sora, as if he could see straight through him and into Roxas.

"We're eight people, and definitely a lot stronger than just him." Sora nodded.

"Six." Kairi corrected him.

"You see that? I was testing you. We're smart." encouraged Sora.

"Sure." Riku shook his head in response, "If he does something... strange, just beat the hell out of him, considering we have no backup plan."

The Gummi Ship landed, and immediately the group noticed something wrong. Hayner, Pence, and Olette were rushing up to them, panting.

"What's wrong?" asked Sora.

"Fuu's gone." Olette murmured.

"Isn't Fuu one of Seifer's gang?" asked Charity, the 'yo mama' fight still clear in her head. Fuu, the girl, seemed to be the only level-headed one in the group. Then again, it didn't seem like she said much at all.

"It's not Fuu that we're worried about," explained Hayner, "it's what took her. Heartless are back in here."

"So Kiur found his bait." Riku mumbled.

"Kiur?" asked Pence.

"Have you guys seen anybody my height, dark gray hair, and kinda looks like me?" asked Riku, although he grimaced at the last thought.

Hayner shook his head.

"We haven't." Olette clarified.

"Do you need our help?" asked Pence.

Nessa looked at Charity, Charity at Sora, and Sora at everyone else, "I'm not sure you guys really want to be tied up in all this."

"It's just finding Fuu," Pence told him quietly.

Sora shifted a little bit where he was standing, "It's not really—..."

"For crying out loud," Axel said, putting his hand to his forehead, and walked up to the three, "I don't think you understand what's going on here. That girl is bait to get to these three," he pointed at Charity, Kairi, and Sora, "and steal their hearts. We're trying to find Kiur and kill him. Got it memorized?"

Olette stared at him in utter shock, Pence cocked his head slightly to the left, and Hayner was hardly listening.

"I'm coming anyway." Hayner decided, pulling his small club out of his pocket.

"It's your funeral." shrugged Axel.

Just then, a Red Shadow began to creep around on the ground. Olette gripped Hayner's shoulders hard, but just out of a reaction. Charity pointed her keyblade threateningly at the Heartless, and it began to slip away, making a beeline for an obvious direction.

"Follow it," Riku told them, feeling more like the unspoken leader for finding Kiur.

"I think it's heading towards the mansion." Sora mused.

"You're right!" Olette called to him, running close behind.

They soon crept through a small opening in a wall that the Red Shadow had disappeared through. Although they never saw that Heartless appear at the other side, they were all positive that Kiur was at the mansion. When they ran through the forest, they heard a huge thump, and suddenly the earth began to shake.

"Ignore it!" Sora called over to them, the gate to the mansion in plain view.

"How can we ignore that?" asked Charity. At first, it seemed as though a regular Shadow was coming out of the ground, but it quickly grew into something much larger— a gigantic shadow with a giant hole in its stomach shaped like a heart, and hair-like dark tendrils spurting from the head.

"Darkside," Sora whined slightly, having to battle this thing one too many times already, "Go for its hand and head!" he called out to them.

Olette, Hayner, and Pence had already seen many strange things, but never anything so huge. If they weren't frightened for their lives, they were crazy. The three of them, either very disappointed or very relieved that their clubs couldn't touch Darkside, backed up and waited for the rest of them to fight.

Charity pointed her keyblade at Darkside's face, and shouted, "Light!" A strong beam of light blinded the creature, hindering his flow of shadows slightly on the ground which Nessa and Kairi were working hard to keep at bay. Sora took this chance to run up his arm, and start beating Darkside in the head as hard as he could.

"It's times like these that I wish I still had the power of darkness," Riku muttered, brutally attacking one of Darkside's hands. Before he knew it, the hand flipped up and Riku was sent flying backwards, but quickly regaining his balance in mid air, and glided back towards the hand he was hit with.

"Cura," Sora said quietly, pointing to Riku. The hurt ankle that he had just suffered when he was hit had been healed, and he continued to chop at Darkside.

"There are so many!" Kairi complained, knocking away as many Shadows as she could. Just the sight of her flowery keyblade could have been enough to scare away the Shadows, but it wasn't. Nessa ruthlessly sliced at the crowd of Heartless, fighting back-to-back with Kairi.

"At least there aren't any Red Shadows in here." she pressed, knocking a Shadow to its dissolving with her flowery Destiny Blade.

"At least," Sora repeated, jabbing his keyblade into where Darkside's ear would be, "I think we've almost got him!"

"What is this thing?" asked Olette to Pence.

Pence shrugged, "How would I know?"

"Maybe it's a different kind of the Heartless." Hayner suggested. Him, Pence, and Olette had only learned very little about the Heartless, and were obviously not well informed.

"...Are they common?" asked Olette.

Meanwhile, Axel took the final swipe at Darkside with his chakram that sent him falling to the ground. As the giant Shadow disappeared into nothing, Hayner, Pence, and Olette were clapping wildly at the side.

"That was... a show to you?" asked Charity, too tired to get angry.

"Was that it? Did you conquer evil?" asked Olette.

This actually earned her quite a few laughs, "Not even close." Kairi responded cheerfully, "We have to get in the mansion and find Kiur."

Sora nodded his head in agreement, and something stirred inside of him. "I really don't think you all can do this alone." came Roxas's voice, as a honey blond boy walked out from Sora, and quickly becoming solid. Axel smiled over in Roxas's direction.

"You probably can't." came Naminé's familiar voice from Kairi's direction, walking out herself. She smiled at the boy, and then at the rest of the group, "I can't fight offensively, but I can use items to heal you whenever you need it."

"I can fight." came a smug voice in Charity's direction. Exie walked, or moreso, strutted out of Charity's body and smirked. She held out her hand, and Destroyer of Darkness disappeared from Charity's left hand and into her own. "You need me, face it."

Nessa smiled. She almost missed being an Organization member just for the sole fact of being able to talk to her.

"Will we be able to... er, touch this one?" asked Pence, who still felt oddly stupid for slashing at a giant shadow and failing miserably.

"Probably." Riku said, "Actually... no, you won't."

Sora's face was confused, but then he smiled, "Yeah, you can't touch this guy. He'll probably beat the tar out of you before you even have time to lift your clubs.

Hayner folded his arms. It was going to take more convincing than that.

xxxxx

"How do you think they're doing?" asked Tifa to the rest of the restoration committee. She would have been in a more cheerful mood had she not just heard about Yuffie's death.

Leon shrugged, and closed his eyes while laying on the couch, "They're going to need to make up for a lot of lost strength without Leander."

Cloud smirked, "You just say that because he was under your wing for the longest time."

"Well, that's why he was so strong."

xxxxx

The mansion was way too quiet for comfort for everybody. They had finally convinced the three of them to not fight with them, but they decided to wait just outside the mansion, which wasn't very smart considering the Heartless were flocking, and their clubs couldn't touch them.

"Where would he be...?" asked Roxas, looking around. There were enough places that a keyhole could be in that mansion, considering the cryptic level was off the charts.

Suddenly, the Red Shadow that they had been chasing earlier appeared again, and made a beeline towards Naminé's room.

"Bingo." Sora smirked, and they rushed forward.

"Wait, Naminé," Kairi said, and the group stopped, "Roxas. Are you sure you want to fight? If Sora and I are defeated, you might be able to take on our hearts, but if we're all defeated..."

Naminé held up a finger to shush her, and put it to her heart, "You'll both die one day. That means that we're destined to fade."

Roxas looked at Kairi, "And I, personally, can't think of a better way to fade."

They didn't have to say any more. Rushing into the white room, they slammed the door behind them. Nothing seemed to have changed since Naminé left; drawings were still taped childishly to the walls, and the long, white table was cluttered with crayons and colored pencils.

"Well," Axel said, breaking the awkward silence in which slow piano music would usually take up, "This is stupid."

Even the Red Shadow had disappeared. This was definitely stupid.

"Looks like we were wrong." Roxas mumbled. As they turned around, they heard a cackle from above them. Staring up, they saw a figure clinging to the ceiling, and preparing to jump down in front of them. Author's Note: Spiderman, spiderman, friendly neighborhood spiderman.

Without thinking, Riku threw his Way to Dawn up at Kiur, who jumped down and knocked it back. Avoiding his flying keyblade, it hit the wall and reappeared in his hands. In the meantime, Sora was being his usual self, and jumped to attack Kiur.

"There's no one to run to this time!" Naminé mentioned tauntingly as the two struggled to avoid the other's attacks, "Both Odol and Anton are gone."

Just the thought of this caused Kiur to growl, "And I have you to thank for that!" he shouted at Nessa, rebounding off of a wall with his keyblade at Nessa. As he jumped to attack her, Nessa just narrowly missed many fatal strikes, and Red Shadows were appearing around her.

As one dug its hand into Nessa's back, Charity growled and charged, "I'm not letting that happen again!" she shouted destroying the Heartless. Exie stood at her back, fighting the Heartless away, and Riku at her side knocking around Kiur in every way possible. Sora had been knocked backwards, and only got up again when Naminé threw a potion into the air to heal him.

After the last Red Shadow he summoned was destroyed, Charity charged at Kiur's back with her Savior of Destiny, only to be deflected by Kiur spinning around and blocking her attack.

"I don't get it!" growled Charity, hastily blocking as many attacks as she could from Kiur, "You're one Nobody, one Heartless! Why can't all six of us beat just you?!" she asked.

Kiur laughed. Everything was still as he held out his right hand, and darkness engulfed the room. Before she knew it, Charity was alone in the darkness, standing face-to-face with Kiur. He was only an inch away from her, and his face reminded her too much of Riku's for comfort.

"You want to know the reason you can't beat me?" he asked quietly, tauntingly as the scenery around them came into view, "Guilt. The one emotion that seems to be in everyone's hearts right now that's stopping you from beating me."

"What are you saying?" asked Charity.

"It's funny how I have no heart, and yet..." he smiled evilly, and got uncomfortably close to her face, "I'm so much stronger."

Finally aware of her surroundings, Charity found herself standing in the park by her house at Azure Daybreak. "What is this?" she asked angrily.

"Funny the things you can do when you're both a Heartless and a Nobody. This is the guilt you have right now." Kiur said, raising his Way to Twilight to her neck.

"Guilt?" she spat.

"Yes, I know you're thinking it." he baited at Charity, sneering, "If Nessa hadn't let Anton get her sword, maybe Leander wouldn't be dead right now. If you had been able to protect Hollow Bastion a little better, maybe the Ninja would still exist. If you didn't leave Azure Daybreak to save yourselves maybe Anton wouldn't have destroyed your world and everyone in it."

Way to Twilight was knocked out of Kiur's hand in one, swift motion, "Those things couldn't be helped!" she screamed at him, rushing towards him and attacking with her keyblade and everything she had left in her.

"You keep telling yourself that," he teased at Charity, skillfully avoiding almost every swipe of the keyblade she made, "I don't think you understand that you are Riku's heart, and the more guilt you're weighed down with, the faster I go."

He was undeniably moving fast, but Kiur mentioning Riku at all just made Charity move faster. It then hit her what she needed to do.

As Charity stopped moving, Kiur raised an eyebrow and looked at her, "What are you doing?" he asked her, sneering.

Charity laughed, and her keyblade disappeared. "It wasn't my fault that Leander or Anton were killed because I wasn't even there, and it was just Nessa's self defense, after all."

Kiur noticed what she was trying to do. As he rushed at her, Charity held up her keyblade, and knocked away his. This took some energy from her, but only made her more ready to beat him, "It wasn't my fault that Yuffie died, either! If you all hadn't been so stupid and realized that you can't use someone else's heart as your own, none of this would have ever happened." Charity realized that his guilt level would not raise at all, but hearing this herself, and hearing herself say this, took a great weight off of her shoulders and her heart.

Charity could find herself grow stronger, and was able to skillfully avoid almost every attack that Kiur threw at her. The park scene began to melt and fade away into the black like wet paint off of a slippery surface, "And it's not my fault that my world was destroyed because guess what?" she asked, charging at him with her keyblade, "I'm not the one that did it!"

Riku and Nessa suddenly appeared next to her in the darkness, facing Kiur and his Way to Twilight.

"How did you get here?" she asked.

"We heard it all," Nessa said, smiling. Her left eye was glimmering with something wet, "And you're right— we have no reason to feel guilty at all. We're here to help you."

Riku smiled his beautiful, calm smile, before turning to Kiur with a face of a killer. Nessa and Charity imitated this, and attacked at him.

Keyblades and a sword clashed, but even three on one seemed to be very difficult for Charity, Nessa, and Riku.

"The guilt didn't slow him down," Charity breathed, being smacked to the side by the Way to Twilight, but regaining herself and slashing at him once more, "We need one more person, I think."

"Look no further," came an unexpected voice. They all looked up, and an ivory-skinned, dark-haired boy dropped down from the ceiling, brandishing a Midday Descending in his hands.

"...Odol?" asked Charity, cocking an eyebrow, "How did you...?"

"Escape?" asked Odol. He laughed, "I have a keyblade. He looked at Kiur with a smirk."

"Are you going to help us?" asked Riku, in the most confused voice he had ever used in the history of Charity or Nessa knowing him.

"Why?" asked Charity softly.

"Because this guy's a liar." he said simply, "I finally understand it now." he mumbled, but his voice soon rose to speak up to Kiur, "After Anton's death, I finally get it. You were just using us to help you collect hearts to try to become a Somebody. Anton said I'm destined for darkness... He was wrong. Nobody's destined for anything. I'll make my own destiny, and this is it!" he shouted, and looked at the rest of them.

Charity rushed into battle like a savior, Nessa like a brave swordsman, Riku like a warrior, and Odol like a hero. Kiur didn't stand a chance. If a Keyblade War ever did exist, this would be an accurate representation of it. Only minutes into the battle of clashing keys and a sword, Kiur fell to the floor, one knee on the ground, and the other resting his keyblade arm.

"How is this possible?" he asked, hissing up at all of them. Kiur's body slowly began to deteriorate in the darkness of the atmosphere, and as the white room around them came back to life, there was another being standing where Kiur was.

"Who's...?" asked Charity.

Riku smiled, "That must be my Heartless, the one that Kiur trapped inside of him."

This boy was simply a silhouette of Riku, standing still, resembling Sora's anti-form. It was odd for Riku to think that if Kiur hadn't imprisoned him inside of himself that he would be running around as a silhouette of himself. The rest of the group seemed bewildered as they looked over at the Heartless.

"How did you guys—!" Sora started, but stopped as Riku's heartless opened his eyes. They expected yellow eyes like a normal shadow, but instead, the violet eyes of a Red Shadow Heartless shown through the silhouette.

The heartless looked down, and put his hand to his heart, before he faded into nothing.

Riku looked forward in disbelief. "It was almost as if it could talk." he mumbled.

"But aren't Heartless supposed to only react on instinct?" asked Nessa.

"I'm not sure anymore." Riku smiled, looking forward.

"You know," started Roxas, "It almost looked like he was thanking you." he said, as they all looked forward in the area where Riku's Heartless was standing.

"Yeah." Riku replied.

Much to their surprise, the burnt ashes of the dissolved Nobody and Heartless had created a keyhole-shape on the floor.

"Riku, you seal this one." Sora insisted.

"No," he said, "I want everyone to seal this keyhole."

The group smiled, and the seven keyblades in the room pointed at the outline in the ground. Way to Dawn, Midday Descending, Savior of Balance, Destroyer of Balance, Destiny Blade, and Kingdom Key all shone with a beam of light which pointed at the keyhole. The outline disappeared, and Twilight Town was sealed.

xxxxx

"Hurry up, we don't have all day!" Chip and Dale called in unison from the Gummi Ship. Riku, Sora, and Kairi were dropped back off at Destiny Islands, and Charity, Nessa, and Odol were saying their final good-byes. Axel decided to stay behind and help out with the restoration committee, considering they needed all the help they could get with both Hollow Bastion and Traverse Town.

"Riku, I—..." Charity started, but was cut off by Riku embracing her.

"We may not get to see each other for a long time, but remember that you're always in my heart." he told her very uncharacteristically. Charity quickly relaxed in his embrace, and as they parted she looked him in his seafoam green eyes.

Since Charity and Nessa's homes were destroyed, they were given a vacant house in Twilight Town, where they could pick up on their schooling once the summer ended, and raise enough munny from side jobs to pay for food. Odol, of course, was returning back to his house in Twilight Town, as he was sure that his family missed him.

"I love you, Riku." she told him.

"I love you, too." he reassured her. They embraced one last time. Charity tried to think of something climactic to say, but nothing came to mind. All she could think of was how much she was going to miss him.

They shared one last kiss, and entered to the Gummi Ship to angry chipmunks.

Kairi turned red, as did Sora. "Dammit!" she exclaimed, took Sora's cheeks in her hand, and pressed her lips to his. Riku laughed at this scene, and waved good-bye to Charity and Nessa.

"It's going to be weird, don't you think?" Nessa asked Charity, "After everything that happened, and starting all over again in a new world. It's weird that... it's all over."

Nessa looked at the window, back at Riku, Sora, and Kairi's smiling faces.

"I don't think it's over."

**  
Author's Note: The end! So cliché, huh? So, the next chapter is the credits, please read! If you don't, that's okay. xD I'll be starting the sequel to this very shortly, so, again, don't forget to check back! Thank you for reading!**


	16. Credits

CHAPTER XVI

CREDITS

First of all, my disclaimer for EVERYTHING on this fanfiction, I don't own any of it except for the OC s, and the plotline, whatever that was exactly. Now, for this fanfiction, almost every chapter had a corresponding song in which the lyrics contributed to the title name, and I figure I should credit those.

1. None

2. The Lovesong Writer by Thursday

3. Unwanted by Kill Hannah

4. Darling by Eyes Set to Kill

5. Mr. Brightside by The Killers

6. None

7. Hospital by The Used

8. What's It Feel Like to Be a Ghost by Taking Back Sunday

9. Noise and Kisses by The Used

10. Summertime by Mae

11. Fscene8 by The Medic Droid

12. Writing On the Walls by Underoath

13. The Crows Are Coming For Us by From First to Last

14. 4 am Forever by Lostprophets

15. Here's To The Night by Eve 6.

I strongly suggest that if you ever go back and read this fanfiction to listen to these songs while it's going on, you'll get a much better feel of the mood that way. :3

And now, I want to thank a couple people...

First, Igor Lollipop for encouraging me to go on... xDD With my very short fanfiction. I hope our characters never attack each other for Riku.

And next, Azul Twilight for being the first person besides Lollipop to actually read my fanfiction and review it as well, and every review of hers made me laugh. w ;

And thank you everyone who's been reading. :D


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